Articles for tag: Missions: Principles

November 11, 2013

Christian Standard

A Conversation with Doug Priest

Meet Our Contributing Editors: This month we talk with Doug Priest, executive director of Christian Missionary Fellowship International, about missions trends, short-term missions trips, and the worldwide multiplication of urban squatters. Interview by Jennifer Johnson How did you get started in missions? My parents went to Ethiopia as missionaries before I began high school. We first heard about it when I was a sixth-grader, and I said, “Oh boy, I get to be Tarzan!” My younger sister was very excited because she wanted a monkey. (She actually did have a pet baboon for a while.) I attended a very good boarding

November 10, 2013

Christian Standard

A New Framework for Mission

By Gayla Congdon It was about four years into our work in Mexico that we decided to start building homes in the Tijuana dump. We recognized that most of the children living at the Tijuana Christian Mission were from families squatting there in makeshift houses. We designed a house that could easily be built and dismantled, so in case the families were ever kicked off the land, they could take the materials with them. That became Amor”s framework for mission as more than 17,000 homes have been built these past 29 years. Over the years our vision has expanded to

November 9, 2013

Christian Standard

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

November 7, 2013

Christian Standard

Persecuted Church, Prevailing Church

By Todd Nettleton “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). It”s not hard to see the truth in Jesus” words when you consider what our Christian brothers and sisters are enduring around the world. In Egypt, the “Arab Spring” was supposed to bring about more freedom and more democracy, but under the Muslim Brotherhood, persecution of Christians actually increased. While many Christians were pleased to see the recent overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) contacts say radical Muslims actually blame Christians for Morsi”s loss of power.

March 22, 2013

Christian Standard

The Rise of the “˜Nones”

By Tim Harlow The front page of USA Today said, “Protestants lose majority status in the US” (October 9, 2012). It just happened to catch my eye as I walked past a newsstand. I thought to myself, OK, but what could have taken its place? Catholicism is dying””is this about Mormonism? The article explained that Protestant numbers are down from 53 percent in 2007 to 48 percent today. But these Protestants didn”t switch to a new religious brand. They just let go of any faith affiliation or label. According to the Pew Forum, one in five Americans now claims no religious identity.

November 20, 2012

Christian Standard

Missionary Books, Missionary Enterprise, and Workings of the Mind

By LeRoy Lawson The Jesus Documents (The Missiology of Alan R. Tippett Series) Alan R. Tippett (Shawn Redford, editor) Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2012   River of God: An Introduction to World Mission Doug Priest and Stephen Burris, editors Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2012   Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011 (accessed at Audible.com) I remember when Alan R. Tippett came to study at the fledgling Church Growth Institute, which was then meeting on the campus of my alma mater, Northwest Christian College (now University) in Eugene, Oregon. Donald McGavran had only recently

November 18, 2012

Christian Standard

Urban Ministry in Lansing

By Kendi Howells Douglas Lansing, Michigan, is a city of about 115,000 with a median income of $35,000. The population is 61.2 percent white, 23.7 percent black, 12.5 percent Hispanic, and 3.7 percent Asian1. The car industry town has seen economic hardships the past few years, with increasing unemployment, crime, domestic violence, single-parent homes, school closings, and many health care and education issues, among others. As in most towns, there are areas that seemingly are ignored, forgotten, or plain invisible. Delta Community Christian Church decided to go to one of those forgotten neighborhoods. Delta is a house church of about

November 17, 2012

Christian Standard

Urban Ministry: Not Just an Academic Concern

By Kendi Howells Douglas In January 2012, an academic society was formed and met for the first time in Bangkok, Thailand. The International Society of Urban Mission is a gathering of like-minded Christians, teachers, missionaries, and urban practitioners from around the world. Its members focus on the issues of urban life, specifically serving those who live in poverty-stricken conditions in the growing slums around the world. Officially, “The International Society For Urban Mission exists, therefore, to be a fellowship of urban missiologists committed to seeking God”s Shalom in cities, especially majority world cities, through active reflection, solidarity and leadership development.”1

November 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Signs of Hope Amid Urban Suffering

By Ash Barker Suffering and despair can easily overwhelm us, strangling any last tinges of hope we have for something better. This is often the case in our neighborhood, the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok, Thailand. Here we are confronted with HIV-AIDS, child malnutrition, and premature death as daily realities. The fragility of life and lack of control often cause us to cry out to God, who promises that a better world is possible. However, sometimes we can only pray, “How long do we have to sing this song? When will things get better?” Biblical hope is more than just

November 13, 2012

Christian Standard

For the Love of a Child

Child sponsorship programs are changing lives””in distant lands and right here in the United States. Discover the facts. Listen to the testimonies. And realize how this is happening. By Doug Priest “Our people sponsor nearly 400 children, and congregational giving continues to grow. In fact, the more we give to others outside our walls, the more our general fund has grown.” “”Steve Reeves, Connection Pointe Christian Church (Brownsburg, Indiana) Alice was conceived out of wedlock. She never knew her father. After the birth, her mother entrusted Alice to her grandmother and moved to another country. Alice lived in the Mathare

November 10, 2012

Christian Standard

Perhaps a Little Guilt Can Be a Good Thing

By Jennifer Johnson In 2011, Americans spent more than $1 billion on scrapbooking supplies. They spent more than 100 times that on fast food and, unbelievably, another $1 billion on the Facebook game Farmville. Anyone who”s grown up in a Protestant church in America has experienced “missions angst”””that gnawing guilt for having so much material wealth and good food while missionaries in foreign countries eat goat and wear discarded American T-shirts. We admire them, but we don”t want to be one of them, which we feel guilty about. We write a check once or twice a year, and know we

November 8, 2012

Christian Standard

Very Good Indeed

By Mark A. Taylor Not every missionary expert posting at this site this month agrees with every other posting here. Readers need not find this discouraging. The point is that more missions work is happening among Christian churches and churches of Christ than ever before, and that”s good. New churches are being planted cross-culturally. Independent congregations in areas once served only by U.S.-supported missionaries are starting new churches that then send out their own missionaries. Thousands of children are receiving nourishment of body and soul because members of Christian churches are sponsoring them with monthly donations. All this is good.

November 6, 2012

Christian Standard

Unreached People Groups

By Doug Lucas In spite of tremendous strides forward in Bible translations, religious satellite broadcasts, and Internet-based evangelism, God”s good news still has not yet penetrated numerous pockets of the planet”s population. To make matters more complex, these pockets sometimes do not follow political boundaries. Rather, they often follow ethnic and/or linguistic boundaries that are much harder to document. Ralph Winter was among the first to articulate the concept of people groups back in 1974 at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. (See Stephen Burris”s article for more on the origin, biblical roots, and history of the development of this

November 5, 2012

Christian Standard

Where Are We Now?

By Stephen Burris Over the past 200 years, there has been a great deal of focus on what the church has been doing, is currently doing, and what still needs to be done. This article seeks to give a general overview of what the church has been doing to fulfill its nature as a missionary church. This piece builds on a model developed by Ralph Winter1. It looks at the three eras of mission he described and then updates that model to represent the current reality of the world. Virtually from the beginning, the church has wrestled with what task or

November 4, 2012

Christian Standard

Future Trends in Missions

By Mike Sweeney As we look to the future of missions, we need to think in broad categories about the current trends that appear to have a future trajectory. Many strategies will rise and fall with people”s interests, technological changes, crises, and other transient issues. But, stepping back and observing the world of missions as a whole, we can see fairly clearly that there are a few major trends that will continue to push the church in new directions as we live out the Great Commission around the world. Just as recognition of the 10/40 Window made an impact on

September 4, 2012

Christian Standard

The Whole in Our Gospel

By Tim Harlow The slogan I”m repeating these days: We”re called to bring Heaven to earth and take earth to Heaven. How well are we doing both? I took my dad to the World Series in Detroit in 2006. The Tigers were playing our beloved St. Louis Cardinals (we are lifelong Cardinal fans), and we had connections, so we went. I had never been to Tiger Stadium, so I relied on MapQuest to guide us there. We arrived at a stadium, but it looked pretty old and run down; the lights weren”t on, and there were no cars in the

December 13, 2011

Christian Standard

A New World for Missions

By Mark A. Taylor “Missionaries are no longer Americans who come to show slides of “˜foreign” countries, but are those who bring the gospel from all over the world,” wrote Gary Holloway, executive director of World Convention, after attending the second Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia October 3-7. His summary reminds us of new opportunities and strategy for missions today. Consider: South Korea sent out 22,000 missionaries to 176 countries last year. Nigeria plans to send 50,000 workers to other nations by 2015. Han Chinese plan to send out 100,000 missionaries to other countries in the next few years.

December 5, 2011

Christian Standard

The Poor You Will Always Have with You . . .

By Doug Priest “I am married and have four children. I received a loan of $400 to start a business making jewelry and shoes. With the money, I purchased a sewing machine, the raw materials needed, and paid the rent for my business house. I have since been able to employ part-time workers.” “”Moses, a slum dweller In Matthew”s account of the anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany, he quoted Jesus as saying, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me” (Matthew 26:11). Mark, who also wrote about this event in his

November 18, 2010

Christian Standard

Let”s Get Busy!

By Doug Priest When I was in college, my grandparents moved from their small farm into the Senior Estates in nearby Woodburn, Oregon. You had to be 55 or older to live in Senior Estates. Back then, I thought 55 was getting along in years. Time flies, and I could have moved into those same Senior Estates some years ago. And I, like a growing corps of involved “seniors,” am fully involved in missions ministry. When we reflect on what”s happening in missions today, we can see how and why their number should increase. Several missions trends have implications for Christians

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