Missions Catalyst 03.24.10 – Resource Reviews

In This Issue: Ask a Missionary, Online Resources, and More

  • BOOK: Got a Question? Ask a Missionary!
  • ONLINE RESOURCES: World Maps and Missions Data
  • BOOK: Our Souls at Work
  • BOOK, BIBLE STUDY, AND MORE: Resources from Paul Borthwick
  • EVENTS: Three Webinars and a Partnership Conference
  • SALE: Clearance Sale from Caleb Resources

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.

BOOK: Got a Question? Ask a Missionary!

Reviewed by Marti Smith.

Ask a Missionary: Time-Tested Answers from Those Who’ve Been There, edited by John McVay. Authentic: 2010. 224 pages.

God says go into all the nations, but how do you get there from here? Ask a Missionary is a very practical and comprehensive resource that will focus your call to the nations and help you determine if a missions-related ministry would be a place for you. Learn from those who have been there and experienced everything from the call to go to stepping into their new life on the field and beyond.

This book includes perspectives from more than 100 contributors on understanding God’s plan for your life, making decisions about training and sending agencies, funding your ministry, and issues having to do with singleness, marriage, and parenting. Mission pastors, this is a great book. Why not get several copies and give them away?

>> Read more here. You can get this book from Amazon for US$10.79, or contact the publisher for bulk discount pricing.

>> See also the Ask a Missionary website. And check out Steve Hoke and Bill Taylor’s Global Mission Handbook.

ONLINE RESOURCES: World Maps and Missions Data

Reviewed by Marti Smith.

Have you seen the World Missions Atlas Project? This collaborative site provides written and visual assessments of the current status of missions progress throughout the world. “I love the GSEC (Global Status of Evangelical Christianity) map,” says Pat Noble. “It’s a free download, and so large (45 MB) that you can crop an area and still use it in a presentation nicely.” Find a link on the site’s front page.

They also provide a variety of regional maps and global ministry tracking tools which your church or ministry can use to communicate about your work.

For more maps, see also World Mapper and read the review in a recent issue of Brigada Today.

Finally, don’t forget our favorite quick-and-easy statistical reference, updated for 2010: Status of Global Mission, compiled by Gordon Conwell’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity and published in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.

>> Readers might also be interested in the newly updated Peoples of the World Poster from the U.S. Center for World Mission, summarizing current information on the status of world evangelization.

BOOK: Our Souls at Work

Reviewed by Justin Forman, for the Business as Mission Network.

Our Souls at Work: How Great Leaders Live Their Faith in the Global Marketplace, edited by Mark L. Russell. Russell Media: 2010, 288 pages.

If the greatest potential for the Christian movement rests on the shoulders of Christian businessmen and women, then what is our greatest barrier?

For years I’ve thought it was an organized follow-up system that could connect people with opportunities to fuse their faith with business.

It’s not that that kind of system wouldn’t be beneficial, but the greatest obstacle we face is validating men and women and unleashing them to look for opportunities in the things they are already doing. These gifted entrepreneurs don’t need a structured system to tell them how to use their skills … They just need someone or something to tell them that work can be worship.

In Our Souls at Work, Mark tells the stories of several great business leaders who understand that work can be worship. I found each of their stories and thoughts inspiring and challenging. I’d really encourage you to pick up a copy of the book for yourself. While you’re at it, grab an extra copy for your pastor.

>> Read the full review, and purchase for US$25 from Russell Media.

BOOK, BIBLE STUDY AND MORE: Resources from Paul Borthwick

Reviewed by Pat Noble.

BOOK: How to Be a World-Class Christian (revised edition) by Paul Borthwick. Waynesboro, GA: Authentic, 2009. 208 pages.

This new edition brings with it a new perspective from this side of the dawn of the information age. The world has arguably changed more between these two editions (1993-2009) than in any other time in history.

Chapter four, Information and Issues, is my favorite. Although my degree is in anthropology, I never thought of myself as a hunter-gatherer type. (I am more the shop-and-microwave type!) But according to Borthwick, world-class Christians are “hunters and gatherers” of a different kind. “Building on the two-part foundation of the Scriptures and the saints, we continue to grow by foraging through websites, books, newspapers, and a host of other sources to expand our minds concerning God’s great world.”

The Three World Class Stories in chapter nine are gems for mobilizers. Best quote is from chapter three, The Scriptures and the Saints. Borthwick quotes from My Utmost for His Highest: “the basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen,” and adds “… emotions cannot sustain the mission … Our global commitment emanates out of the heart of God.”

>> Purchase from the publisher for US$9.74.

In preparation for writing this review I foraged around for other Borthwick resources. Take a look at these:

BIBLE STUDY: Missions – God’s Heart for the World, by Paul Borthwick. Madison, WI: InterVarsity Press, 2000. 75 pages. Purchase for US$6.40 from the publisher.

AUDIO: Around the World in 60 Minutes (Urbana09); Give Your Life Away and Following God’s Lead (both messages at Olivet Nazarene University, free at iTunes); and Jesus Moved into the Neighborhood, (Gordon College Chapel series, free at iTunes).

SLIDES: World Overview PowerPoint.

ARTICLES: Three thought-provoking articles on short-term trips from RoundTripMissions.com, companion site of Christianity Today.

WEBINAR: Overcoming the Problem of the Superficially Converted (The Mission Exchange, US$29.95 for non-members, US$9.95 for members).

EVENTS – Three Webinars and a Partnership Conference

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar.

Consider attending one or more of these webinars from The Mission Exchange:

March 25 – Children and Missions: Moving from Education to Action! (Jill Harris Jordan, Teacher and Mobilizer, Kidzana)

April 15 – Overcoming Death by Email (Ted Esler, Executive Vice President, Pioneers-USA)

May 27 (Rescheduled from March 4) – Five Things I Wish Missionaries Remembered about Taking Care of Themselves (Brent Lindquist, President, Link Care Center)

This conference announcement is a bit cryptic, but this is all we can say:

Partnership Conference: An international partnership working to advance the kingdom among an unreached Muslim people group of Central Asia will hold a conference this spring near a major US city. For security reasons, the details of the conference are privileged information, so first-time attendees will be required to provide church or ministry references. Write to this address.

>> See our Basic Networking Tips (published in our 4/23/08 edition).

>> See also our full Missions Events Calendar.

SALE: Clearance Sale from Caleb Resources

Source: Caleb Resources.

As we prepare to move our web store of mission mobilization resources to Pioneers.org, we have marked down the price of many items for clearance.  Get some great deals for your church, your ministry, your family, and yourself – while quantities last!

Questions, comments, submissions? Contact us.

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