In This Issue: Global Conversations, Book Reviews, and Tools to Use with Short-term Teams
- ARTICLE: Simple Debriefing Questions
- ARTICLE: Top Ten Missions Myths
- BOOKS: Three on Crossing Cultures
- MANUAL: Leading Your Whole Church into Maximum Global Impact
- BLOGS: Join a Global Conversation
- REQUEST: Keep Catalyst Coming
Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!
Resource Reviews, edited by Marti Smith, are published once a month.
Dear Reader,
Greetings from sabbatical-land. Yes, I’m still on my break, but am popping in to say hello and to pass along news about a few somewhat new resources and some that are tried and true. Click through to learn more about any that catch your eye. Other things you think readers should know about? Please feel free to leave comments for everyone on our website or write to us directly!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go back to resting, listening to God, and thinking deep thoughts! Aaah. And may God refresh and renew you, too!
Marti Smith
Publisher and managing editor
ARTICLE: Simple Debriefing Questions
Source: Missions Catalyst archives
Getting ready to send some folks out, or receive them home from a short-term project? Last year, in our June 24 edition, we ran an article on how to help your short-termers “sort it out.”
ARTICLE: Top Ten Missions Myths
Source: Missions Catalyst archives
Who doesn’t like a top-ten list? Here’s Shane Bennett’s take on misconceptions about missions from May-June 2008.
1. Only Extraordinary People Need Apply
2. Missions Means Going Overseas, Planting Churches
3. Non-Christians Are Hairy, Scary Meanies
4. It’s All about Money
5. It’s All about Meeting Needs
6. It’s Just One More Thing
7. It’s All Missions
8. All Mission Effort Has the Same Strategic Value
9. God Only Uses Americans and Other Westerners
10. God Has Given Up on Americans and Other Westerners
BOOKS: Three on Crossing Cultures
Do you get David Mays’ Book Notes? None of us have time (and money) to keep up with everything that comes out, but David’s thoughtfully chosen excerpts and comments will help you get the gist and decide if you ought to read the book. Click on the first two titles below for David’s notes.
1. Cross-Cultural Leadership
Leading Cross-Culturally: Covenant Relationships for Effective Christian Leadership, by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter. Ann Arbor, MI: Baker Academic, 2009, 175 pages.
“Lingenfelter hopes to help leaders understand their own culture of leadership, become effective learners, deal with power and control, and apply Christ-centered principles that transcend our culture and our sinfulness.”
2. Responding to Poverty
When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Moody, 2009, 330 pages.
“The last few years have seen a major upswing in social concern among American evangelicals, including the exploding short-term missions that focus on ministering to the poor. The authors suggest that we are not doing nearly enough and that we are doing much of it wrong, exacerbating the problems we are trying to solve.”
Note: In addition to his (free) Book Notes, David Mays also reviews books for mission leaders and interviews authors as part of his ministry with The Mission Exchange.
3. Developing Cultural Intelligence
Here’s another fairly recent book you might find helpful:
Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World, by David Livermore. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2009, 288 pages.
Nothing from David Mays on this, but Jim Plueddemann of Evangelical Missions Quarterly says, “The book intersperses dozens of theoretical models with examples, stories, and journal entries, making the book both deep and interesting.”
The publisher’s website includes a 27-page excerpt you can download as well as links for buying the book. Livermore also wrote Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence, published in 2006.
MANUAL: Leading Your Whole Church into Maximum Global Impact
Our friends at Catalyst Services have published a practical, 200-page manual for church leaders called Your FOCUS on the World: A Step-by-Step Guide to Leading Your Whole Church into Maximum Global Impact. Looks super!
Get a good taste of the contents through excerpts (“Mobilize the Congregation” and “Send a Survey Team”) in recent editions of the (free, downloadable) monthly newsletter, Postings.
>> Learn more and/or purchase the manual from Catalyst Services for US$19.99 plus shipping.
Note: To be further equipped, consider becoming a FOCUS facilitator. Training sessions are planned for June 7-8 in Chicago, IL and June 14-15 in Denver, CO.
BLOGS: Join a Global Conversation
Source: WEA Update, May 4, 2010
The Lausanne Global Conversation is focusing on important issues related to world missions and evangelization. Christians from more than 40 countries are sharing their perspectives and expertise on topics such as reaching children with the gospel, poverty, the environment, and working together in partnership to share Christ.
Add your voice to [a] conversation:
Children: Children? Look Again! (Menchit Wong, Philippines)
Diaspora: The Flying Community (Sadiri Joy Tira, Canada)
Ethnicity and Identity: Ethnicity and Identity (Dewi Hughes, United Kingdom)
Forming Leaders: A Platform for Kingdom Success (Sue Plumb Takamoto, Japan)
The Human Future: The Dignity of Humankind (Jennifer Lahl, United States)
Orality: Orality and Storytelling: Matters of the Heart (Steve Evans, South Africa)
Partnership Development: Nurturing A Culture of Exchange (Rev. David Hackett, United States)
Poverty and Wealth: Calling Gargoyles to Life (Gregg Okesson, Kenya)
Prosperity Gospel: Introducing the Prosperity Gospel Debate (Matthews Ojo, Nigeria)
Scripture in Mission: Major Priorities in Eradicating Bible Poverty (Ntobha Mba, United States)
>> Source.
REQUEST: Keep Catalyst Coming
This service is free, and we want to keep it that way… but if Missions Catalyst is helpful to you and your ministry, can you help us cover expenses? Web hosting, email delivery, and content cost us about US$15 per edition. Click here to sponsor an edition or to help with our US$800/year budget with a contribution of any size. Thanks!
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