Author: MC

World: The State of the Great Commission

Source: Lausanne Movement, April 16, 2024

The Lausanne Movement, renowned worldwide for its historic congresses and leadership in global mission over the past five decades, will soon introduce its State of the Great Commission report [analyzing] the most crucial gaps and opportunities in fulfilling the Great Commission.

The report was enriched by the insights of more than 150 global mission experts from various corners of the world, with 40% representing the global South, 35% from the global North, and 25% from the global East. Additionally, the investigation tapped into hundreds of sources of information, as well as publishing original research. First published in English, it will soon be accessible in six additional languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Korean, Chinese, and Russian.

Report Highlights:

1. The Great Commission in a Digital Age

In today’s digital era, evangelism faces new challenges, as online platforms shape identities and communities, making outreach more complex than mere content provision. To succeed, great commission efforts need to intentionally cross digital borders.

2. The Question of Humanness

This is an unprecedented age of technological development, and what it means to be human is being questioned amidst rapidly changing dynamics of everyday life. These broader culture movements present new alternative paths for hope, salvation, and redemption, effectively altering the plausibility of the gospel.

3. The New Middle Class

Around 2020, the middle-class became the majority of the global population and by 2050, it will increase by 2 billion individuals. This demographic shift will significantly alter global dynamics, requiring necessary adjustments in the efforts of the Great Commission.

4. The Global Aging Population

People aged 60 years and older represent the fastest-growing global population, projected to increase from 1 billion to 2.1 billion by 2050. Global ageing has not been a primary focus for Christian missions in previous decades, a failure that has a significant impact on the extraordinary opportunity to reach and disciple the rapidly growing 60+ cohort.

The report will be released globally on April 23, 2024. You can access the report by visiting Lausanne.org/report.

Readers might also be interested in Cru’s Mission Shift podcast, which explores the changing face of global missions (now in its second season).

Middle East: Answers From Heaven for an Anxious New Mother

Source: Frontiers USA, April 15, 2024

I gently laid my daughter in her crib before tiptoeing out of the nursery and into the living room, where I sank onto the sofa beside my husband. We usually went to bed shortly after our daughter, but we had an appointment at a nanny agency in the morning. We needed the time together to pray.

My husband and I had agreed that we needed help so we could continue the ministry and language learning we’d already begun in our new country. But we both worried about finding someone we could trust to care for our daughter.

As we prayed for a solution, I stared at the rug. I was afraid I’d fall asleep if I closed my eyes. “Lord, would you guide us to the right person?”

The next day, my husband and I visited the nanny agency. We were taken into a small room full of women, all lined up to meet us. It was a normal process in this part of the world, but I’d never felt quite so awkward.

I fumbled through introductions, my discomfort rising as I quickly made my way through the line. Eventually, I reached a woman named Jannah.

She smiled. “It means heaven.”

“Really?” My uneasiness melted away, and I began to sense the Lord at work. “My daughter’s name is Celeste. It also means heaven.” When I was pregnant, we were guided to this name, and we hoped it would serve as a lifelong reminder to keep her focus on Christ and her eternal home.

I wondered if the meaning had similar significance for Jannah. “Tell me about yourself.”

At first, she described her experience caring for children. Then, with a gentle smile, she identified herself as a believer. “I’ve been praying for the chance to work for a Christian family.”

I could hardly believe it! Yet, I shouldn’t have been surprised. God always proved himself faithful in the big things and the little.

We were Jannah’s answer to prayer, and she was ours.

Read the whole story.

Did you know? Opportunities to bless missionary families by helping care for or educate their children are abundant. Want to make a difference? Ask if your church’s missionaries or others you know could use a hand, or contact an international school, mission agency, or MissionNext.

The Ultimate Checklist, Mission Anthropology & More

  1. Download: The Ultimate Missions Checklist for Your Church
  2. Book: Anthropology (and More) for Missionaries
  3. Training: Cultural Awareness for Short-Term Teams
  4. Stories: The Yemen Listening Project
  5. Quick Takes: Focus on Easter
  6. Events: Missions Conferences and More in April

Read or share the email edition.

Editor’s Note: Missions Catalyst will be on spring break for the next two weeks. Look for us again April 17.

Download: The Ultimate Missions Checklist for Your Church

Source: The Mission App

Is your church ready to send members who feel they are being led into missions? Do you need help setting up a missions program? What about training your people? Identifying expectations and qualifications? Issues of family, finance, and choosing agency partners?

The Mission App has prepared a 40-page PDF to help you along the way. It’s yours in exchange for your contact info. Looks pretty good to me, though I did not check all the links.

Get your copy.

Not familiar with The Mission App? They help potential missionaries find their fit and take their next step toward serving in missions (one application to connect with 45 partner agencies). Recently they became part of another ministry with a similar goal, MissionNext.

Another free download that recently caught my eye: Around the World in 12 Recipes from Compassion International. The digital cookbook includes stories, prayer points, and more.

Book: Anthropology (and More) for Missionaries

Source: Baker Academic

Crossing Cultures With the Gospel: Anthropological Wisdom for Effective Christian Witness, by Darrell L. Whiteman. Baker Academic, 2024. 288 pages.

The goal of this book is to encourage and empower cross-cultural workers from any region or background to become more effective, serve longer, and thrive in their cross-cultural ministries.

The author, a leading professor and missiologist, draws on decades of training experience to explain the concept of culture, incarnational ministry, common communication problems, culture shock, and how to learn from and engage with engage with people in other cultures despite the cultural baggage we all tend to carry.

I loved this book. Whiteman’s singing my song. He references many seminal works, old and new, and gives the reader plenty of jumping off places for learning more about topics like cross-cultural communication, participant observation, bonding, and becoming bicultural.

Ultimately, just reading a book falls short of what you can learn from practical pre-field training or on-site coaching, but this one could be a great complement to either.

Learn more or buy the book, available in hardback, paperback, and Kindle editions. Well worth the read.

Training: Cultural Awareness for Short-Term Teams

Source: CultureBound

Speaking of crossing cultures, do you have short-term teams going out this summer? Would you like them to be aware of the cultural dynamics where they are going? Most groups sending mission teams do their own training but CultureBound has two options that can help.

CAMP: Cultural Awareness Made Practical

Individual members of your teams register for CAMP and watch the online videos, totaling one hour, on their own time. Each lesson has a video and worksheet with questions and activities for both the preparation stage and when the team is on the field. $30 per person.

CAST: Cultural Awareness for Short-Term Teams

CAST is a two-hour online or in-person training or workshop that can also be scaled to meet the needs of your team. It focuses on four ways that cultures differ from each other which gives the group cultural patterns to look for and a common vocabulary to discuss them. $150 per group.

Learn more about CultureBound.

See also CULTURELink, which is offering a two-day seminar for team leaders coming up April 19-20 in Virginia, and MissionExcellence, which provides regular training on best practices for short-term mission.

You may also want to check out a new resource called MissionLinked. It provides a simple, fun, and secure way to link people together while raising funds for a short-term mission or a special project.

Stories: The Yemen Listening Project

Source: The New Humanitarian

Long before Gaza hit the headlines, the term “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” often referred to Yemen. Its devastating war and economic collapse, which began nine years ago, has left hundreds of thousands of people dead from violence, disease, starvation, and a lack of healthcare. Tens of millions more have been caught up in Yemen’s conflict, but its story has mostly been told by journalists, aid groups, and politicians. Until now.

What has it really been like to live through all this? To find out, The Yemen Listening Project asked Yemenis one question: “How has the war impacted your life?”

More than 100 Yemenis—from inside the country and across the world—answered.

(Thanks to Justin Long who came across this in sleuthing for his Weekly Roundup, then kindly sent it to Doug Lucas of Brigada and me to help get the word out. Do you serve a community whose stories need to be told and who want to tell them? Maybe you could set up a listening project, too. Think about it.)

Quick Takes: Focus on Easter

Sources: Various

  1. In case you missed it: Why Easter Matters for Mission (Radical).
  2. See also How You Can Support Easter Services With Prayer (Outreach Magazine).
  3. Share a virtual Easter experience with those who might appreciate it. One option: Franklin Graham’s Easter Message From Israel.
  4. Can’t get enough Easter? You might want to celebrate again with the Orthodox Church. Their observance is late this year: May 5.

Events: Missions Conferences and More in April

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

April 3, Understanding GenZ (online). Peer2Peer webinar for church mission leaders from Missio Nexus.

April 3-6, Gather 2024 (online). A virtual retreat for women from any nation serving outside their home culture. Provided by Thrive, which is also planning in-person retreats coming up aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean in May (though that one’s full!) and in Sicily, October 14-17.

April 4, COVID-19 Traumatic Stress Among Missionaries Serving Cross-Culturally (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

April 5, Call to Prayer: Night of Power (virtual event). A prayer gathering for members of Missio Nexus.

April 8 to August 11, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New online classes begin regularly.

April 9-11, Global Missional AI Summit (Orlando, FL, USA).

April 10-11, The Mobilized Church (Atlanta, GA, USA). Discover keys to unlocking your church’s mission potential; offered by Sixteen:Fifteen.

April 16, Contend: Monthly Day of Prayer for Mission Mobilization (global). Coordinated by GMMI and held on the third Tuesday of each month.

April 18, Risk and Short-Term Mission (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

April 18, Find Your Most Impactful Stories (online). Peer2Peer virtual gathering for mission communications professionals, provided by Missio Nexus.

April 19-20, Help! We’re Going on a Short-Term Trip (Blacksburg, VA, USA). Provided by CULTURELink.

April 20, Engage Missions (Fort Washington, PA, USA). A conference equipping believers to engage in world missions; offered by WEC International.

April 22-23, Support Raising Bootcamp (Indianapolis, IN, USA). Provided by Via, formerly Support Raising Solutions. More classes are held around the world throughout the year.

April 29 to July 28, Encountering the World of Islam (online). Also available in other formats and languages; new online classes start several times a year.

View the complete calendar, updated regularly. Submissions welcome.