Month: June 2024
Article: Get Your Pastor’s Perspective
Source: Catalyst Services Postings, June 20, 2024
It’s summer for those in the Northern Hemisphere, and while many regular programs are paused, church leaders are looking ahead and beginning to plan for the coming ministry year. This makes it a great time for your global outreach team to invite your pastor to engage in a discussion around your congregation’s missions impact.
This month’s Postings offers nine questions for productive interaction to identify what God is doing and how you could work better together.
Just getting started (or starting over) with a strategy to engage your church for global ministry? Read 5 Steps Toward Global Engagement, also from Catalyst Services.
10 Globally Inspired Recipes for Your Family’s Table
Source: Via Family, June 18, 2020
As you taste these new foods, take some time to learn about the people and places they represent. Then pray together as a family for these people groups to come to know Jesus as Savior.
- Buckwheat Pancakes
- Nian Gao, Sticky Rice Cakes
- Chai Tea
- Draniki, Easy Potato Pancakes
- Simsim, Sesame Candy
- Meni-meniyong, Sesame Seed and Honey Sticks
- Salatu Niebe, Black-Eyed Pea Salad
- LLajua, Bolivian Hot Sauce
- Oven Baked Plantains
- Pacoca, Peanut Candy
Did you know that your family can participate in bringing the hope of Jesus to unreached people groups by learning about them and interceding on their behalf? Here are three tips for learning about unreached people groups as a family:
- Locate where they live on a world map.
- Learn about their way of life.
- Learn what they believe.
Read the article. It has links to profiles of unreached people groups from regions where these recipes are enjoyed.
Also from Via Families, see the six-week study Parenting With a Global Vision and other resources.
Download: Grab Your 30-Day Praise Calendar
Source: Navigators, June 11, 2024
Does your heart need to be reminded of how God is much bigger than the circumstances you face?
Praising God can be that reminder and it may reduce stress.
In 30 Prayers of Praise to God, you’ll receive 30 Bible verses with corresponding prayers to make the next month of praising God a simple rhythm you could use every day.
Download 30 Days of Praise to God; no registration required. It’s one of the many great discipleship tools this ministry freely shares. And it may be just what you (or a friend) will need in the next month.
Article: God Doesn’t Waste Gifts in Missions
Source: Global Frontier Missions, June 12, 2024
Growing up, I knew I was going to be a missionary. Did I know what that actually meant? Absolutely not.
My bookshelf was filled with stories of missionaries from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their dedication and pioneering spirit continue to inspire me. But as I took steps in my own missionary journey, I began to learn that God equipped me for a different type of ministry.
My childhood idea of a missionary included mud huts, canoes, and malaria. I earned the rank of Eagle Scout to prepare myself for such a rugged environment. If backcountry skills were needed to reach the lost with the gospel, I was fully prepared.
Upon arriving at Missionary Training School, I quickly learned that my concept of missions was incredibly narrow. Remote villages without access to the gospel are abundant, but even more so are globalized cities home to millions of souls lacking that same access. Rugged, pioneering spirits are still needed, but in our modern world that is far from the only skillset valuable in missions.
See also The Two Most Common Questions in Missions (also from GFM).
Data: What Is the World’s Emotional Temperature?
Source: Gallup, June 25, 2024
Think about how you felt yesterday. Did you smile or laugh a lot? Did you learn or do something interesting? Were you angry? Sad?
Download Gallup’s Global Emotions 2024 report to see the latest global data on how people in 100 countries experience emotions like loneliness, stress, respect, and more. Among other things, the latest report suggests “negative emotions” have dropped for the first time in a decade.
You can also engage with the data through an interactive webpage comparing various countries.
Another global study reports that “news avoidance” is now at record high levels (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, via BBC). Could the two be related?
Events: Missions Conferences and More in July & August
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
July
July 8-9, Support Raising Bootcamp (Orlando, FL USA). Provided by Via, formerly Support Raising Solutions. More classes held around the world throughout the year.
July 8 to August 3, COMPASS (Palmer Lake, CO, USA). Language and culture acquisition provided by Missionary Training International.
July 11, Jesus on the Everyday Road (online). Learn simple ways to transform ordinary conversations. Training event from AllNations.
July 13, True Spirituality: Foster Care and Adoption (online). Training event from AllNations.
July 15-17, Crisis Management Seminar (Auburn, AL, USA). Provided by Crisis Consulting International. Following this event, on July 18, they will hold a one-day security workshop for short-term mission trip leaders at the same location.
July 15-19, Storytelling Training (online). Get hands-on experience with oral Bible storytelling with five three-hour sessions provided by Story Runners.
July 17, Dangerous Places, Difficult Regions: Do We Still Go? (online). A peer2peer virtual event for church mission leaders provided by Missio Nexus.
July 17-20, Perspectives USA 50th Anniversary Global Conference (Chicago, IL, USA). All are welcome.
July 19-24, New Wilmington Mission Conference (New Wilmington, PA, USA). Annual, week-long multi-generational mission conference; a tradition for more than 100 years.
July 21-26, Debrief Retreat (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by the Center for Intercultural Training.
July 21-28, Wake (Boundary Waters Canoe Area, MN, USA). A deepening adventure for men working in missions. Offered by Barnabas International.
July 22-26, Abide Debriefing (Joplin, MO, USA). Help for moving forward with hope and momentum; from TRAIN International (held multiple times a year; another will take place July 29 to August 2).
July 24, Reimagining the Mission Playbook (online). Thought-leader briefing from Missio Nexus (for executive leaders only).
July 25, Jesus on the Abiding Road (online). Training event from AllNations.
July 29 to August 3, Interlude Debriefing Retreat (Chicago, IL, USA). A week-long retreat for adult global workers to process their experiences in a contemplative setting with peers and trained debriefers. Offered by Barnabas International.
July 31 to November 13, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New online classes begin regularly.
August
August through October, Missionary Care Cohort (online). Help your “sent ones” stay connected. Provided for local churches by The Upstream Collective.
August 3, Turning Triggers Into Glimmers (online). Training event from AllNations.
August 3-10, Classic ReBoot (Calgary, AB, Canada). Eight-day re-entry retreat for MKs/TCKs (aged 17-20) re-entering Canadian society. There’s also a wilderness edition for older MKs.
August 5-9, Engage Retreat (Union Mills, NC, USA). Spiritual retreats are provided regularly by the Center for Intercultural Training.
August 11 to September 6, Equipping for Cross-Cultural Life and Ministry (Union Mills, NC, USA). Followed by a Language Learning Accelerator course, both from the Center for Intercultural Training.
August 13, How to Be an Effective Church Missions Leader (online). Peer2Peer event for church missions leaders. Provided by Missio Nexus.
August 20-23, Field Security Seminar (Lake George, CO, USA). Provided by Crisis Consulting International.
August 28-29, Field Leaders Contingency Planning Workshop (Cape Town, South Africa). Provided by Crisis Consulting International. Followed by a Women’s Personal Security Workshop August 30.
View the complete calendar. Submissions welcome.
World Refugee Day, Turkish courts & more from Madagascar
International: World Refugee Day 2024
Source: USA for UNHCR, no date
By the end of 2023, more than 114 million people were forcibly displaced globally—a record number propelled by the war in Ukraine and other conflicts around the world. For millions of refugees who are forcibly displaced each year due to conflict, violence and persecution, fleeing is the first step in a long and difficult journey to finding safety.
With a record number of people forced to flee their homes, the international community must work together to give refugees more hope and more opportunities while they are away from home. The most effective way to support refugees is by including them in the communities where they have found safety—this means ensuring they can apply for jobs, enroll in schools and access services like housing and healthcare. Inclusion paves the way for long-term solutions for refugees and displaced people, allowing them to thrive in a new country or preparing them for a safe return to their home countries.
On World Refugee Day [June 20], let’s commit to including refugees in our schools, workplaces, healthcare systems and beyond.
Learn more and explore data and resources from the UNHCR. According to a June 5 press release, more than 2.9 million refugees will need resettlement in the coming year, a 20 percent increase. People displaced from Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan lead the list.
See also Pray for Refugees (INcontext) and Refugee Highway Partnership.
USA: Somali Man Urges American Christians to Do More Evangelism
Source: Christian Post, June 12, 2024
Osman Jama of the group Mission to North America’s Refugee and Immigrant Ministry was one of two speakers at a seminar held [June 11] at the Presbyterian Church in America’s 51st General Assembly.
The seminar featured Jama talking about his Islamic upbringing and how he came to Christ in 2007 while living in Minnesota.
In an interview with The Christian Post, Jama explained that while Christians in America “really do well studying,” they must be more active in evangelizing nonbelievers.
“We take our personal discipleship and personal growth very seriously, but we are also commissioned to go make disciples of all the nations, and in that, we are called not just to study but to go,” said Jama.
“The go part is also important. I think we do a really good job of sending others, but my personal belief is that everyone is called to evangelism, there are just different talents and callings. Some are called to the Middle East, some are called to Europe, but others are called to be here, to do evangelism with their neighbors, and to go across the street as much as across the country or across the continent.”
See the full story with links and pictures.
Readers might be interested in an analysis of trends in American Christianity from Trevin Wax, 3 Waves That Have Shaped Evangelical Churches (and a 4th on the Way); published by The Gospel Coalition or this look African-American mission history, Juneteenth and the Great Commission (ChurchLeaders.com).