Articles for tag: Majority World

March 1, 2021

An Ending and a Beginning

Maureen closed the book she’d been trying to read and switched off her bedside lamp. Burrowing into the covers, she tried not to think about the future. She felt her spirit stirring, as if God was about to do something big and different, but she didn’t yet know what that would be. “God, here I am. Send me,” she prayed for what seemed like the millionth time. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, still unsure of where God would take her. Several months later, an insightful missionary friend invited Maureen to attend a Global Perspectives on the World

March 6, 2017

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

The New Diaspora

By Doug Priest As the world becomes globalized, opportunities for evangelism multiply. Now is the time to develop new strategies for reaching dispersed people living in our own cities, towns, and neighborhoods. Back in the 1970s, when I drove on the freeways in Los Angeles where I lived, I saw signs for “Little Saigon,” “Chinatown,” and “Little Korea.” I could go into the center of the city and find myself in neighborhoods of Mexican-Americans, Guatemalans, and Salvadorians. Today the situation has changed. Go to any school district in Southern California and you will find 30 to 40 or more languages

December 18, 2014

Christian Standard

Book Reviews Reviews

The Crime-Poverty Connection

Book Review by Doug Priest The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 The Locust Effect made me extremely angry. I seethed with righteous indignation for the entire first half of the volume. Gary Haugen is the founder of International Justice Mission, an international human rights agency that provides service to “impoverished victims of violent abuse and oppression in the developing world.” His book begins with several gut-wrenching illustrations of injustice in the majority world. From Yuri, the small Peruvian child who was raped

November 9, 2013

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Are We Being Paternalistic When We Talk about ‘Missions’?

By Michael Sweeney There are problems with the word, and many are beginning to talk about them. We do well to understand what some hear when we say “missions.” But that doesn”t mean we should curtail cross-cultural evangelism. “That”s not “˜PC”!” Have you ever had to deal with that “politically correct” criticism after saying or writing something that inadvertently offended someone because of a set of connotations you did not share? My reaction, when this has happened, has ranged anywhere from frustration to despair to paralysis. How does one even begin to keep up? As a missionary and teacher of

July 3, 2011

Christian Standard

Christian Living

“˜And God Bless America”

By Doug Priest Perhaps I am not the only one who has a visceral reaction when politicians (and I do not mean only the presidents) end their speeches with the phrase, “And God bless America.” I cringe every time I hear that, and it is not just because it seems highly hypocritical when so many of the politicians who use the phrase are later caught up in ethical scandals or involved in illicit liaisons. Nor is it because the slogan is pandering, politically tacked on the end of a message to score points with others, but used by many who

January 4, 2009

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Life for the Average Christian

By Doug Priest Who is an average Christian, and what does an average Christian look like? I am not using average in the ethical sense, that is, to mean one who does not sin too much, goes to church, contributes to the offering, and finds ways to serve. Nor am I referring to the average Christian in the intellectual sense of one who has a pretty good grasp of the Bible. Instead I am using the term average Christian in the demographic sense. In the year 2000 there were almost exactly 2 billion professing Christians in the world, but that

August 19, 2007

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Kingdom Entrepreneurs: Business as Mission

By Doug Priest In the Majority World, formerly called the Third World, one comes into contact with abject poverty, particularly in urban areas. In many such places, income is less than $2 a day. Youth roam the streets as their parents have succumbed to HIV/AIDS. Unemployment is rampant. There is sewage, toxic waste, hunger, despair, and a lack of hope. How can the good news be communicated in the midst of such squalor? Can anything be done? As the church, do we have a role? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Rich, an elder serving with a church in Colorado