In This Issue: Raising Up Tomorrow’s Missionaries, New Books, and More
- ARTICLE: Kids Missions Camps Disciple Tomorrow’s Missionaries
- BOOKLET: A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Buddhism
- CURRICULUM: Steve Saint and the Missions Dilemma
- BOOK: Woman to Woman – Sharing Jesus with a Muslim Friend
- BOOK: “Commissioned” Explores Substance, Scope of Mission Mandate
- EVENTS: New on the Missions Catalyst Calendar
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 are published once a month.
ARTICLE: Kids Missions Camp Helps Disciple Tomorrow’s Missionaries
Source: Catalyst Services
Ten years ago, missions mobilizer Doug Hazen launched Kids Missions Camp, an annual five-day, life-transforming, interactive experience of missions for children. Eager to “give away” their ideas and curricula, Doug offers to help mobilizers, churches, and agencies launch similar programs. These flexible themes fit not only camp settings but children’s classes, kids missions conferences, and VBS programs both here and around the globe.
>> Download the 1.4 Mb file. It includes Doug’s suggestions for mobilizers.
BOOKLET: A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Buddhism
Source: OMF Books
A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Buddhism by Alex Smith. Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2009. 128 pages.
“With its emphasis on meditation, morality, ceremonial purity, peace, and ethics, Buddhism appears to most Westerners to be non-threatening. But in recent decades it has experienced considerable growth in the West, claiming in excess of 1.25 billion adherents worldwide. It is the third largest religion in the world, and one of the fastest growing.
“As the twenty-first century unfolds, interaction between Buddhism and Christianity will increase. But while Christians and Buddhists mix freely across the globe, they often do not clearly understand each other.
“Whether you are travelling on business to Buddhist countries or befriending Buddhists living in the West, this book will help you understand and communicate effectively with your Buddhist friends.”
>> Purchase for US$4.99 from OMF Books or get it for £2.99 in the UK from Christian Focus.
>> Editor’s note: Looking for something to equip a short-term team? This might fit the bill! Contact the OMF center in your country to talk to someone about other useful resources.
CURRICULUM: Steve Saint and the Missions Dilemma
Remember Missions Dilemma? Steve Saint’s hard-hitting video-based series is designed to help North American Christians ask, “Is there a better way to do missions?”
Or maybe you’ve seen his 2001 book, The Great Omission, which “shows how current missions strategies have unwittingly harmed the indigenous church and kept millions of believers from fulfilling their roles in God’s kingdom.”
Now there’s a workbook to help those teaching or studying these topics to tie the two together.
All three are designed to help North Americans see their mission efforts from a recipient’s point of view and think carefully about how they might want to do things differently from here on out.
>> Get a set including a DVD, workbook, and one copy of The Great Omission for US$60.00. Bulk prices are also available. Items are also available separately.
>> Editor’s note: You may be familiar with Steve Saint and his family through the 2006 film, The End of the Spear. Ethnographic Media has recently released a documentary film which shares a more recent chapter of the story. As far as we can tell, The Grandfathers isn’t yet available on DVD.
BOOK: Woman to Woman – Sharing Jesus with a Muslim Friend
Woman to Woman: Sharing Jesus with a Muslim Friend by Joy Lowen. Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 2010. 208 pages.
Joy Lowen grew up as the daughter of missionaries, living in Yemen, Somalia, and Ethiopia, and then served with her husband in Pakistan before settling into a ministry to internationals in Canada. In Woman to Woman, she says, “I wish to counteract the present fear and prejudice towards Muslims by sharing my journey of learning to feel at home with them.”
This book is designed for Christian women with a desire to reach out to Muslim women in North America, see the world from their point of view, and respond with compassion, friendship, and sensitive evangelism. Chapters deal with topics like hospitality, sexual purity, abuse, community life, death, and the occult.
>> Learn more at the publisher’s website. Purchase from Christian Book Distributors for US$9.99.
>> Editor’s note: Readers might also be interested in another book we received from Chosen Books – David Boyd’s You Don’t Have to Cross the Ocean to Reach the World: The Power of Local Cross-Cultural Ministry.
BOOK: “Commissioned” Explores Substance, Scope of Mission Mandate
Commissioned: What Jesus Wants You to Know as You Go by Marvin J. Newell. Saint Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2010. 182 pages.
Marv Newell is Executive Director of the mission agency association, CrossGlobal Link. In this new book he invites readers to take a fresh look at the five Great Commission passages in context, making clear the substance, scope, and strategy of God’s redemptive mission to the world, and helping readers understand what the Great Commission is all about.
Newell explains that while the passages build on one another, each has its own emphasis.
– John 20:21, right after the resurrection, provides the model: “As the Father has sent me.”
– Mark 16:15, eight days later, emphasizes the magnitude of this commission: “Go into all the world … to the whole creation.”
– Matthew 28:18-20, one to two weeks later, when Jesus asks his disciples to meet him for a time together back in Galilee, is the most detailed. It lays out the method: “… make disciples of all nations …”
– Luke 24:44-49, taking place about 40 days after the resurrection, clarifies the message: “… repentance and the forgiveness of sins …”
– Finally, Acts 1:8 reminds the disciples of the means of their mission: “You will receive power.”
“Today, when many distracting voices are calling believers to do good acts globally and call it ‘mission,’ when competing agendas to world evangelization suck the vigor and vitality out of its evangelistic fervor, and when those instructions of Jesus are being downgraded in favor of a more obscure and unexacting mandate, it behooves us to look again at what Jesus really told his followers they should be doing as they are going” (p. 18).
>> Purchase for US$12.00 from ChurchSmart.
>> Editor’s note: This book might be a good resource to study with or use as a resource for teaching small groups, classes, and mission committees.
EVENTS: New on the Missions Catalyst Calendar
March 05 to 06 – Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Iowa City, IA, USA). Provided by The BodyBuilders.
March 18 to 19 – Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Greenville, SC, USA). Provided by The BodyBuilders.
April 22 to 23 – Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Bellflower, CA, USA). Provided by The BodyBuilders.
April 29 to May 1 – Connecting to Equip Conference (Chicago, IL, USA). “Moving Women beyond Surviving to Thriving in Missions,” sponsored by CrossGlobal Link.
May 20 to 21 – Becoming Globally Friendly (Chicago, IL, USA). “Engaging in the Majority World Missions Movement,” sponsored by CrossGlobal Link.
May 20 to 22 – Rekindling the Fire (Chicago, IL, USA). Sponsored by the National Association of Mission Pastors, now part of CrossGlobal Link.
May 27 to 28 – Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Champaign, IL, USA). Provided by The BodyBuilders.
June 15 to 16 – Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Nashville, TN, USA). Provided by The BodyBuilders.
September 10 to 11 – Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Elgin/Chicago, IL, USA). Provided by The BodyBuilders.
Questions, comments, submissions? Contact us.