Mission & Evangelism

Mission & Evangelism equips Christians and churches to share the gospel and make disciples locally and globally. Explore Bible-based articles on evangelism, outreach, disciple-making, missions strategy, church planting partnerships, and engaging your community with compassion and clarity. You’ll find practical guidance for building a missional culture, telling the story of Jesus well, and reaching people across cultures and generations. Whether you’re serving in your neighborhood, supporting missionaries, or leading a church on mission, these resources help you live sent and invite others to follow Christ.

June 17, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Really Something!

By Mark A. Taylor Joe Boyd says the Bible came alive to him when he was just 8 years old. The Sunday school lesson of the day was about Jacob and Esau and how Esau, famished from a day in “the open country,” gave up his birthright for a bowl of Jacob”s stew (Genesis 25:29-34). “Our teacher told us that story,” Boyd remembers, “and then she pulled out a thermos, unscrewed the cap, and poured each of us a serving of lentil stew in a paper cup. “I”d never tasked lentil stew before, and it was good! It dawned on

June 5, 2014

Christian Standard

Seven Hours Ahead and Seven Meters Away

By Tom Moen Nairobi, Kenya, is seven time zones ahead of the East Coast of the United States. The last time I was in Kenya this startling thought occurred to me: Have we made it easier to go seven hours ahead on a mission trip to “be Jesus” to people from another culture who speak a different language than to go seven meters away to our next-door neighbors””the people with whom we share both language and culture””to “be Jesus” to them? I will start by saying I am a proponent of short-term mission trips, though I believe we should call them

June 1, 2014

Christian Standard

Opening Up Missions to Everyone

By Jennifer Johnson More than 1 million American Christians participate in short-term mission trips each year, and many churches build their missions strategy around opportunities to engage members in these experiences. However, not every church has relationships with missionaries who need help, expertise in planning the trip and prepping participants, or enough interested members to create a team. Andy Newton created Ministro Journeys to remove these obstacles and make it easier for churches and individuals to get involved. While serving as associate missions director at Southland Christian Church (Lexington, KY), Newton often received inquiries from professional groups and smaller churches

May 15, 2014

Christian Standard

The Church”s Mission in Today’s World

By Robert Reese “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “˜Come over to Macedonia and help us”” (Acts 16:9).  In Paul”s vision, a European begged him to share the gospel, which Paul was eager to do. Twenty centuries have passed since then. The world is much different, but has the church taken notice of just how different? What should the church be doing in today”s world? If we had been living a hundred years ago, we would have a totally different view of the church*. At the Edinburgh Conference on World

May 12, 2014

Christian Standard

The Megachurch Missions Minister

By Chris DeWelt “With great power comes great responsibility” (Voltaire, not Spiderman) The megachurch missions minister occupies a new and unique role. In their article, “U.S. Megachurches and New Patterns of Global Mission,”1 researchers Robert J. Priest, Douglas Wilson, and Adelle Johnson make several important observations. One is that the American megachurch missions pastor is a gatekeeper who watches over a very significant portion of the megachurch budget. Their survey found the average annual foreign missions budget in the megachurch was $690,000. Outside of general payroll and facility needs, the missions budget of the typical megachurch easily eclipses all other

May 11, 2014

Christian Standard

Megachurches and Missions

By Chris DeWelt Suspicious of missions? Uninterested in missionaries? Disengaged from foreign fields? Not the megachurches I interviewed for my doctoral thesis and this report. Actually, I found just the opposite. The American megachurch is interested in missions! The advent of the megachurch is a phenomenon unique in church history. The fact that the megachurch is here is hardly a news item, but the growth and influence of megachurches is a significant part of our current story.1 Just 53 years ago there were only 16 Protestant megachurches2 in America. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research lists about 1,500 megachurches.3 Currently,

April 16, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

A Brand-New Life

By Mark A. Taylor I bumped into our backyard neighbor at the grocery store, and the conversation went from the price of groceries to the weather to “How are your kids?” And then she told me, “We”ve been going to church.” She had visited our church once, several years ago, but she had never come back. And I always felt she was embarrassed by that. But  now she was smiling. “The girls love it, and the first Sunday my 13-year-old daughter asked if she could go back that night to youth group.” Then her expression became more earnest. “It”s really

March 27, 2014

Christian Standard

Evangelism & Discipleship

By Tim Harlow Imagine this scenario with me. You”re at a wedding. The idyllic young bride and groom are exchanging vows with that faraway look in their eyes, pledging their everlasting faithfulness. Warm fuzzies galore. That night, the groom returns to his bachelor pad, alone. The couple keeps separate checking accounts, independent schedules, and their own apartments. When you get a chance to speak with the mother of the groom, she defends the arrangement: “Well, he”s only 25, you know! He”s not ready to be a full-time husband. They don”t really have the same taste in food or furniture .

March 10, 2014

Christian Standard

Bible Bowl Behind Bars

By Jennifer Johnson Bible Bowl tournaments are happening in churches, on college campuses, at conventions””and in a jail in Circleville, OH. When Kevin Littler became chaplain at the Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility, he wanted to create opportunities for Bible study, and believed competition could be the draw to encourage participation. Josiah Gorman, executive director at the National Bible Bowl office in Cincinnati, encouraged Littler to contact Bill Thomas, the new minister at nearby Northridge Church of Christ. “I know the life of a senior minister is very hectic, and I was simply hoping he could recommend a volunteer to coach

March 9, 2014

Christian Standard

Aid to Stick

By Jennifer Johnson Why do we always want to Band-Aid the solution? Never mind. I know why. Whether it”s homelessness or abortion or violence in schools, it”s easier to organize a sock giveaway, stand on a picket line, or bicker about gun control than to address the systemic social issues that first led to the problem. I relearned this a few months ago when interviewing my friend Becky Ahlberg about My Safe Harbor, a nonprofit she (and Anaheim First Christian Church) launched in 2008 to serve a city ravaged by gang violence, crime, and poverty. It might have been easier

March 9, 2014

Christian Standard

Compelled to Do More

By Jennifer Johnson “Williamsburg, Virginia, is a wonderful place to live, a place full of history and beauty,” says Fred Liggin. “It”s also a city that”s in denial about its homeless population and its deep poverty.” Several years ago a family showed up at Williamsburg Christian Church asking for a place to stay overnight. Liggin, who serves as WCC”s lead minister, felt compelled to do more. “I decided we”d have to do better than a room for the night, because Jesus would not want this family and their little baby to go back on the streets,” he says. “I had

January 31, 2014

Christian Standard

Partnership Opening Doors to China

By Jennifer Johnson The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that China sends more students to study in the United States than any other country””and some of them now study with Lincoln (IL) Christian University. In 2008, LCU began partnering with the American China Civic Exchange to meet the needs of Christian students and churches in China. Today the school”s China Institute offers beginning English study, seminars, training classes, and summer camp experiences as well as two- and four-year college degree programs. “We think of the China Institute as a gateway for these students,” says Dr. James Estep, dean of the

January 27, 2014

Christian Standard

A Conversation with Jim Tune

By Jennifer Johnson Meet Our Contributing Editors: This month we talk with Jim Tune, senior minister with Churchill Meadows Christian Church in Toronto, Canada, and director of Impact Canada about why he still believes in the Restoration Movement and thinks you should, too. You”ve developed this reputation as “the Restoration Movement guy.” And I”ve always appreciated your balanced perspective on it; on the one hand, you live in a post-Christian country and you”re more interested in telling people about Jesus than engaging in doctrinal battles. At the same time, you have a high value for the movement. What”s the story

January 20, 2014

Christian Standard

Interview with Steve Dye

By Paul Boatman Steve Dye, a 17-year veteran of deaf ministry and former deaf minister at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, is a freelance evangelist for the deaf, working in conferences, workshops, revivals, and other church programs, for the encouragement of deaf ministry. (The interview was interpreted by Amy Truman of the Deaf Institute.)   How did you become interested in deaf ministry? I did not know sign language until I married my wife. She is also deaf and had to be my interpreter all the time. As I learned to communicate through sign, I began to realize many

January 13, 2014

Christian Standard

Proclaiming Release: Captives Caught by “˜Felt Needs”

By T.R. Robertson Shortly after our arrival at the prison chapel, the two-way radios crackle with the announcement: “Release Christian Campus House to the chapel.” Within minutes a few dozen offenders, as we”re told to call them, come walking across the central prison yard. We actually call them by their first names. We make a point to learn and remember their names, since no one else here offers them that courtesy. The courts have mandated the prisoners” freedom to practice their chosen religion. The weekly chapel schedule is filled with a wide variety of offerings in 10 different “fully accommodated”

January 2, 2014

Christian Standard

Neighbor Saving

By Jennifer Johnson My favorite neighbors are the Jewish couple next door. This is not because they are the only neighbors I know, although that, also, is true. But even if I knew everyone on our street I would still adore the Needlemans and their squishy, smiley, 1-year-old twins. This weekend we”re taking care of their two black labs; when Matt and I travel in a few weeks they”ll look in on our own ginormous dog. This past summer our times together included an impromptu Memorial Day cookout, a cozy Sunday evening with the kids, and a trying but ultimately

January 2, 2014

Christian Standard

Extending Our Hand All the Way

By Frank Shirvinski (In this column, Frank Shirvinski, senior minister at Chaparral Christian Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, writes about the church”s initiatives to connect with its local interfaith community.) Our relationship with the Jewish community in Scottsdale started a number of years ago with the release of The Passion of the Christ. When [Mel] Gibson”s movie came to town, two synagogues and two churches took the opportunity to present a joint screening, followed by a panel discussion with local clergy. The theater was sold out””and the discussion was greatly appreciated by an audience both interested in and concerned about the state

December 29, 2013

Christian Standard

Missional Fitness

By Frank Shirvinski We didn”t intend to be missional. In 2007, we were simply a group of guys from the church who enjoyed studying jujitsu and working out together. Our niche was fairly small and limited. However, as word spread, we invited friends to join us, and some of those friends even came to services at Chaparral Christian Church on Sunday. So, as our ranks grew, we began to wonder if we were doing something right. Was general fitness a place the church could connect with an existing need in the life of our community? How could we extend our

December 16, 2013

Christian Standard

Making Disciples

By Jeremy Brown Standing on the platform at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Phil Robertson spoke with conviction as the crowd hung on every word. “I”m not an ordained preacher in the way that you”re thinking””I”m just a guy who makes duck calls.” Much of the world is interested in the thoughts of the “Duck Commander” because this everyday man from the woods has chosen to use every platform afforded him over the last 30 years to introduce people to Jesus Christ””and God has allowed him a significant platform! “I”m just trying to get America and the rest of

November 25, 2013

Christian Standard

Coming ‘Home’: When Missionaries Come Off the Field

By Carla Williams They were so vulnerable and wounded, barely able to look me in the eye. They”d gone into missions directly after college, bright with hope and the thrill of obedience. With sincere love and determination, they”d adopted an unreached people group. Thousands of dollars had been sacrificed for their language study and living expenses. And here they were, three years later, looking so lost and alone, feeling all the weight of their supposed failure. When many missionaries come off the field, churches and families don”t know what to say and the missionaries themselves don”t know how to move

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