Category: Resource Reviews

Videos: New Mission Explainer Videos

Source: LeMotif

Need a general missions explainer video? Communication consulting group LeMotif made a couple of them and can work with you on customized versions for free; pay only to license the music.

Video 1: God Has a Mission (2 minutes)
Video 2: What Is a Missionary? (2.5 minutes)

For more mission explainer videos, see this collection from Pioneers and a helpful series from Global Frontier Missions.

Resource for Helping Refugee and Immigrant Families

Source: Family Life, a ministry of Cru

Looking for a tool to help you connect with and serve refugees, immigrants, and other resettled families as they work through challenges like transition, trauma, grief and loss, and raising kids in an unfamiliar culture? Family Life recently released a free, downloadable study guide to help you lead four sessions with a couple or small group.

The material is meant to normalize the transition process so people know they are not alone, pick up tools and vocabulary to help them discuss emotions and experiences, and name losses so they can mourn and heal.

There are two versions of the study guide, one that has “God talk” and one that doesn’t, plus leader guides. All the materials are in English. No registration is required; these guides are yours for the taking (and sharing).

Learn more or download Finding Home Again: A Path for Refugees, Immigrants, Resettled Families, and Those Who Help Them.

Websites: Unengaged Peoples & The Great Pursuit

Sources: The Engage Network and International Mission Board

The Engage Network has launched Unengaged Peoples, a new website to focus attention on the 1,600 or so people groups no one is engaging with the gospel (at least not “with intent to birth and nurture multiple communities of Jesus followers”). The website features a searchable and sortable list that continues to be rigorously refined, some sharp, brief videos, and a personal assessment tool to help you discover possible roles among unengaged peoples.

Your input on the website (as well as the entire idea) is quite welcome. They’d also love for you to share with the website with your network.

You might also check a new site with a similar purpose from the SBC’s International Mission Board. They describe the task as The Great Pursuit and have identified 3,072 unengaged groups. They plan to send 300 missionary explorers over the next five years, each assigned to explore 10 groups over a two-year period.

Others can sign up to be virtual explorers, getting updates and cheering them on.

The disparity in UUPG numbers is a bit disturbing and may be a reminder not to hold to our models too tightly. It’s not a competition—these groups (and others) are talking and working together.

Podcast: It’s Teatime Somewhere, But Don’t Move Overseas If…

Source: Taking Route

Episode 23: Don’t Move Overseas If…

“Are you thinking about moving to another country and wondering if you’re cut out for the expat life? If so, you’ll want to listen to this episode ASAP! If you’re a current expat, you’ll still want to listen because who among us has not continued to question if we’re cut out for this life?”

“In this episode, we’ll discuss reasons NOT to move to another country—while also acknowledging how none of us were truly ‘ready’ for the life we stepped into.”

Listen to this and other episodes of It’s Teatime Somewhere on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It’s a fun one.

Also worth a listen:

Events: Conferences, Training and More in July

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

July 6-7, Support Raising Bootcamp (Orlando, FL, USA). Provided by Support Raising Solutions.

July 10-13, Thrive Retreat (Copper Mountain, CO, USA). For North American women serving cross-culturally.

July 10-14, Abide Debriefing (Joplin, MO, USA). Help for moving forward with hope and momentum. Provided by TRAIN International (held eight times a year). An additional debriefing will be held July 17-21.

July 11, Contend: Monthly Day of Prayer for Mission Mobilization (global). Coordinated by GMMI and held on the third Tuesday of each month.

July 11, Thriving as a Publisher and Author in an AI-Assisted World (webinar). Helping Christian authors and publishers around the world think through the impacts of AI; from Media Associates International.

July 14-16, Rethinking Forum (Dallas, TX, USA). Hosted by the MARG network for people who share both a love for Jesus and a love for Hindu people. This one’s been going for 20+ years now.

July 14-16, Integral Disciple Making Movement (Bellingham, WA, USA). Combining Community Health Evangelism (CHE) and Disciple Making Movement (DMM) so disciples live healthy lives and churches are planted; from the Global CHE Network.

July 14-17, Field Security Seminar (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by Crisis Consulting International. There’s another in Colorado in late August, or back in North Carolina in November.

July 21-26, New Wilmington Mission Conference (Western Pennsylvania, USA). Annual, week-long multi-generational mission conference; a tradition for more than 100 years.

July 24-26, Crisis Management Seminar (Auburn, AL, USA). Provided by Crisis Consulting International; followed by a July 27 Mission Trip Leaders Security Workshop.

July 31 to December 3, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New online classes begin regularly.

View the complete calendar, updated regularly. Submissions welcome.

Grit & Grace, Motives for Mission, Jonathan Edwards, and More

In this edition of Resource Reviews:

  1. New App: Holy Ground for Prayerwalking
  2. Article: Cross-Cultural Immersion—10 Ways to Start Where You Are
  3. Book: Grit to Stay Grace to Go: Staying Well in Cross-Cultural Ministry (and Other Recent Titles)
  4. Events: Conferences, Classes & Retreats in June

Read or share the email edition, or scroll down for more.

New App: Holy Ground for Prayerwalking

Source: 24/7 Prayer and Civil Righteousness

Habakkuk 2:14 says that the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. How about our streets and sidewalks? Use the Holy Ground prayerwalking app to find resources (though most are “coming soon”), see where others have prayed, and track prayerwalks in your own area.

Looks like this started near me, in Portland, Oregon, but even here there are plenty of streets that may not have been prayerwalked. Thought I’d give it a go. What about you? Get a family member or friend and pray for God to be glorified in your neighborhood or town.

Learn more or look for the app from the Apple and Google app stores.

Looking for tools to stimulate prayer for a people group or region on your heart? See Justin Long’s list of prayer guides, recently updated. Many are free downloads. Let him know if you have one to add.

Article: Cross-Cultural Immersion—10 Ways to Start Right Where You Are

Source: Go.Serve.Love

If we wouldn’t seat ourselves onstage at a concert hall without training, is there a reason we wouldn’t need to be trained for other work God has for us (like global work)?

There are lots of lessons around town. The trick is to both train your eyes to see them—and your heart to choose to engage.

Read the article.

Read another thought-provoking article, The Most Strategic Mission Field: Workplace Evangelism and the Great Commission (Lausanne Movement).

Books: Grit & Grace, Motives for Mission, Jonathan Edwards, and more

Sources: Various

Grit to Stay Grace to Go: Staying Well in Cross-Cultural Ministry, by Sue Eenigenburg and Eva Burkholder

Cross-cultural ministry is full of twists and turns. You finally figure out what to do and where to go, raise your support and share your plans with everyone, only to get to the field and find it’s not what you expected, or that the people you were so looking forward to working with are on their way out. Or maybe you’re the one leaving and processing all the implications of that decision.

Whether you stick it out or realize it’s time to let go, Grit to Stay Grace to Go will help you know you aren’t alone.

Each chapter addresses a different dynamic that often comes up, how the authors have seen or experienced it, lies you might fall for and truths you can cling to. Throughout are meaty reflection questions and resources for going deeper—typically 4-6 articles to access online and a book or two for each of the 36 chapters. A series of appendices address topics like soul care, listening, loss and grief, and debriefing.

This is more of a workbook and a reference than the sort of book you read straight through. Team leaders and missionary care providers will find it a helpful resource, and field workers will see themselves on its pages.

Note that both authors have published books for women, but this isn’t just a book for women, Americans, or missionaries from a certain tradition; they’ve made efforts to keep a broader readership in mind.

Learn more or purchase from William Carey Publishing or elsewhere; the oversized paperback is US$17.99 while a digital copy (epub or Kindle) is US$9.99. Bulk discounts are available for ten copies or more.

Missionary Motivations: Challenges from the Early Church, by Matthew Burden

Christianity’s rapid expansion is remarkable. But the earliest Christians had little to say about obeying the Great Commission or concern for the lost. Without dismissing those motivations, the author of this short book takes a close look at the early church’s vision for global missions, notably their focus on filling the earth with worship and holiness (less Matthew 28, more Malachi 1:11).

This thoughtful book explores what drove Roman martyrs and desert fathers as well as the thinking of the saints, monks, kings, and pilgrims who expanded the Church in India, Syria, Central Asia, Europe, and beyond.

Learn more.

Other new books from William Carey Publishing include Facing Fear by Anna Hampton and Portraits of Global Christianity, edited by Gina Zurlo.

Brave Son of Tibet: The Many Lives of Robert B. Ekvall, by David P. Jones

Raised in China by missionary parents, gifted with languages, and able to make friends with anyone, Robert Ekvall of the Christian and Missionary Alliance had advantages that served him well in the two decades he and his family served among Buddhist nomads in northeastern Tibet. The inspiring story is full of adventures, setbacks, and breakthroughs.

After tragedies and opportunities remove him from Asia, he returns as a WWII military attache and intelligence officer with the U.S. Army and later takes up a new life as a university professor. It’s all in this readable and well-researched biography.

Learn more.

Other books by Jones include Only Thibet, Cousins—Peacemakers in the Tibetan Border, and a biography of A.B. Simpson in several languages.

You might also appreciate The Empathy Machine, an article from Ted Esler on why we should read biographies.

Jonathan Edwards on Movements, by Dave Coles

What do we make of revivals, awakenings, and new religious movements? How should we sort out what we hear and see? The author, a proponent of CPM/DMM, takes a look at how influential theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) responded to the revivals and Great Awakening of his day and advised others to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Along the way, Coles asks: what would Edwards say, both positive and negative, to critics of disciple-making movements today? It’s a quick read but a challenging one if you’re not used to the language of early American theologians like Edwards.

Learn more.

Here are a few more new books I’ve heard about but haven’t read.

The Missionary Mama’s Survival Guide: Compassionate Help for the Mothers of Cross-Cultural Workers, by Tori R. Haverkamp could be just what you need. Read an excerpt: Finally, Some Help for Moms of Missionaries (A Life Overseas). If you are familiar with the 2008 book Parents of Missionaries, I’d be interested in how you find this book compares (besides the fact that this one is especially for moms).

Shaanxi: The Cradle of Chinese Civilization, by Paul Hattaway, is the seventh book in the China Chronicles, a province-by-province, decade-by-decade look at Church growth in China. Read an excerpt (Asia Harvest).

The Great Story and the Great Commission: Participating in the Biblical Drama of Mission, by Christopher Wright, was published a few months ago by Baker Academic. Read a review (Lausanne Movement).

Whew! That’s a lot of books. Happy reading.