Sun going down on a full summer? We’ve got a prayer that may match your mood, a training opportunity for mission trip leaders, articles to help your church, and events coming up in September. Read on.
Read or share the email edition or scroll down for more.
Source: Eva Burkholder
Lord God, I’m so weary.
I feel like I could cry but not sure what about.
I’ve run a sprint and I need to pause. Rest. Reset.
It felt like a successful sprint.
I reached my goals. I survived.
I served. I taught. I empathized and encouraged.
I adapted. I pivoted.
I listened a lot. I prayed incessantly.
I invited co-workers into rest.
I heard hard stories and
know that some aren’t doing as well
as I’d like them to.
I made recommendations.
I shared resources.
I nudged toward restoration
and gave the gift of presence.
I also laughed heartily,
soaked in the beauty of your creation,
witnessed your healing and reconciliation,
saw them relax and breathe deep,
find solutions and next steps.
You enabled me to serve well. And I am grateful.
But now I’m tired and depleted…
Read the full liturgy, especially if you serve in ministry leadership or a missionary care role.
The author co-wrote a helpful book that came out earlier this year, Grit to Stay Grace to Go. Read our review.
Source: MissionExcellence
The Standards Introductory Workshop is a 10-hour seminar designed to help short-term mission leaders and mobilizers make their mission trips better. It explores seven standards of excellence in short-term missions and what makes them key elements of successful, God-honoring mission trips.
The workshop is taught by experienced MissionExcellence trainers, is interactive, and uses case studies and small group discussions to help you apply the standards to your specific ministry context. It can also serve as a step in becoming a MissionExcellence member organization, which will give you access to all kinds of mission trip help.
Workshops are offered at least a few times a year, in person as well as online. The next one will be September 26-27 in Orlando, Florida, preceding the Missio Nexus Mission Leaders Conference. The next online workshop will be October 24-26. Use the promo code CATALYST to get 20% off an online workshop registration.
See also a collection of articles about mission trips (from MissionGuide, another arm of the same ministry).
Sources: Various
7 Principles for Responding to Crises
Emails and church hallway conversations may raise urgent questions: “People are suffering! What will our churcåçh do? How can we help?” Catalyst Services shares principles to help your church decide when and how to wisely respond to crises.
7 Practical Ways Churches Can Care for Missionaries
Want to do a better job at caring for those you support and send out? A winsome Canadian church mission leader shared some solid ideas on the Global Missions Podcast. But they may require leaving margin in your mission budget—funds not allocated to monthly support.
Listen to the podcast (it first aired in 2021).
9 Ways to Share Wins Overseas
“Celebrating out loud is a way of putting skin on how God responds to us, in his own bounding, bursting-at-the-buttons joy. And the Bible’s clear that sharing the wins in community ratchets our joy up a notch.” Go.Serve.Love suggests a variety of ways to celebrate the good stuff.
Prevent Burnout by Enjoying God in 4 Simple Ways
In an article for Missio Nexus, Carolyn from Soul Shepherding offers four little but surprisingly powerful ways to renew your intimacy with God (and includes other helpful insights and links).
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
September 4-17, Orient Pre-field Training (Joplin, MO, USA). Provided regularly by TRAIN International.
September 7, Mission Design: Practical Tools for Navigating your Changing Ministry Landscape and Leading Your Team to Creative Breakthrough (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
September 7-9, Support Raising Bootcamp (Kigali, Rwanda). Provided by Via Generosity (formerly Support Raising Solutions).
September 11 to December 10, Encountering Muslims (online). Formerly Encountering the World of Islam. New online classes start several times a year. Also available in other formats and languages.
September 11 to January 14, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New online classes begin regularly.
September 11-12, Support Raising Bootcamp (Phoenix, AZ, USA). Provided regularly in various locations by Via Generosity (formerly Support Raising Solutions).
September 11-15, Storytelling Training (online). Offered regularly by Storyrunners, a ministry of Cru.
September 12-18, Traction Conference (Wilderswil, Switzerland). Conference to serve men who are global workers serving cross-culturally. Provided annually by Catalyst International.
September 13, Hope Conference (online). An annual event from Crescent Project featuring powerful stories from former Muslims and insights from leaders in Muslim ministry.
September 14, Bitcoin for Missions: Unlocking the Potential and Exploring the Possibilities (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
September 15-16, Missions Expo (Capetown, South Africa). A free community missions conference; held annually.
September 19, Contend: Monthly Day of Prayer For Mission Mobilization (global). Coordinated by GMMI and held on the third Tuesday of each month.
September 20-21, People Raising Conference (online). Be equipped for raising personal support. Provided regularly by People Raising.
September 21, North America Central Asia Forum (online). Now relaunching, this group of people interested in ministry in Central Asia will hold short, online meetings several times a year. You may also be interested in a Central Asia Consultation planned for March in Eurasia.
September 21-29, Breathe (Wilderswil, Switzerland). A retreat for mission workers offered annually by Catalyst International.
September 24-27, Live the Mission Conference (Fresno, CA, USA). Hosted by Mountain View Church.
September 27-29, Mission Leaders Conference (Orlando, FL, USA). An annual event from Missio Nexus. Primarily for mission executives and church mission leaders. The conference includes several pre-conference meetings and training events that may also be worth your while. Note: I (Marti) will be there, so if you go, please look for me and say hello!
September 28-30, Unreached Peoples North America Summit (Pleasant Valley, MO, USA). Sponsored by a coalition of ministries.
September 28 to November 28, Frontier Filmmaking Seminar (online). Join Create International for an eight-week training in how to write, produce, direct, film, and edit gospel films for unreached people groups in their language and cultural context.
September 29-30, Help! We’re Going on a Short-Term Trip (Downington, PA, USA). Seminar for team leaders from CultureLink. Looks like they will also offer this seminar in Georgia in January and Florida in February.
View the complete calendar, updated regularly. Submissions welcome.
Read or share the email edition or scroll down to read the stories.
This edition includes several in-depth analyses (in the form of short excerpts). You may want to save or share some of them with others. They address situations in Korea, Niger, and India with skill, humility, and a biblical perspective. Too heavy for you today? Skip to the end for news of prisoners set free in Eritrea and several other countries.
A few more finds:
Standing with the Persecuted
Supporting and praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters is a frequent theme in our Missions Catalyst news briefs. But Wissam al-Saliby says it’s not enough. In fact, he goes so far as to say international anti-persecution strategies are failing Nigerian churches (Christianity Today). Learn more about al-Saliby and his fight for persecuted Christians around the world in Faithful Among the Nations (World).
Wisdom from Proverbs
We’ve heard a lot about the Proverbs 31 woman. But where are today’s Proverbs 22 men? Read Jaimie Oliver Garande of Zimbabwe’s brief reflection on Proverbs 22:9 in To Solve Problems Skillfully (Haggai International). Do you think we need more Proverbs 22 leaders? Let’s pray for them.
Also pray for those participating in the Parliament of World’s Religions, August 14-18 in Chicago. But all religions are not one. I suggest you get the insider scoop from Carl Teichrib, a critical observer and author of the book Game of Gods.
Source: Sahel Blog, August 3, 2023
On July 26, Niger suffered a coup, or perhaps a show of force that escalated into a coup. On July 28, the CNSP proclaimed the head of the Presidential Guard, Abdourahmane Tchiani (or Tiani), as military head of state. The coup has all sorts of geopolitical ramifications, real and imagined, but here I want to leave geopolitics aside and focus on Niger.
The first question concerns the proximate trigger for the coup. Tchiani himself, in a major speech on July 28, evoked “the continuous degradation of the security situation in our country” as well as “bad economic and social governance” as the reasons for the coup. Meanwhile, well-informed observers believe that the real trigger was an effort by [ousted president Mohamed] Bazoum to fire Tchiani. That is the most plausible theory I’ve heard so far.
Tchiani, born in 1964, is an elite, career member of the Nigerien Armed Forces. He has been at the head of the Presidential Guard since 2011. It is probably obvious why he would not want to give up such a post, but to add a little academic heft to the discussion, this saga has made me think of Professor Richard Joseph’s work on “prebendalism” in neighboring Nigeria—the idea that corrupt officeholders treat their offices as extractive opportunities for themselves and their network of supporters. In this view, Tchiani saw his job as simply too valuable to lose.
Read the rest of this long and thorough analysis; including links.
See also an infographic on the coup in Niger (INcontext).
How will believers and ministries be affected by the presence of military dictatorships stretching across this band of Africa from coast to coast? Justin Long addresses this in a new prayer publication based on his weekly news roundup.
Source: Lausanne Global Analysis, July 2023
Korean churches have been committed to cross-cultural missions for decades. They have officially sent out more than 22,000 missionaries abroad in 2021. However, things are not what they used to be.
Changes in mission contexts have grown over the years with increasing nationalism, difficult visa situations, and an influx of migrants to Korea. Symptoms of change and confusion in mission were present long before the COVID era. The most palpable blow was a systemic eviction of Korean missionaries from a restrictive access country in 2017 and 2018. The number of Korean missionaries in this country was once more than 4,000 and has dropped to less than 40 percent of 4,000, according to the data in 2022.
Another critical change was the decline of Christianity in Korea. The number of Christians in Korea has plateaued for the past two decades since 2000 and has decreased drastically in recent years. The problem is not just with the number. Society’s trust [in] Christians is at its record low.
The full story has footnotes, charts and a bit of a case study for a new way forward. The author argues that Korean churches (and others) needs to adopt a more holistic understanding of mission that is not limited to international sending and church planting or focused only on the unreached.
See also Why Christianity Quit Growing in Korea (The Gospel Coalition).
Got time for a couple of podcasts?
Source: Christian Freedom International, August 10, 2023
Pastors and believers in Uttar Pradesh, India, are being jailed, including mothers with their babies, reports the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin.
Since an anti-conversion law was passed in December 2020 up to May 2023, “234 people have been arrested and jailed under the statute, none convicted,” reported Morning Star News.
Pastor Harendra Singh and his wife Priya were arrested during a worship service on July 30. Hindu political extremists accused the couple of trying to convince villagers to convert. Their three-year-old son was incarcerated with Priya.
The same day, Pastor Amarjeet Ram and five believers were arrested during a prayer meeting. Seven other Christians were jailed in other districts.
Days earlier, nine believers were jailed after Hindu nationalists invaded their prayer meeting, threatened, and smashed church property. Later, five women who gathered to pray for the jailed believers were also accused and jailed.
Pray for India’s pastors and believers to remain steadfast in their faith. Pray for God’s protection for Christians to worship and serve others.
Read the full story for more incidents.
Also read this collection by multiple contributors, Reporting on Hindu Nationalism (Religion Link). There’s a lot there.
