Welcome to Mission Hits, a monthly blog highlighting stimulating and significant recent resources related to world mission and world Christianity.
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Welcome to Mission Hits #59 (July 2024)
Scouring the web for first-rate world mission resources each month can sometimes be a challenge to squeeze into life, but it's such a pleasure to be able to digest, curate and now present to you such a wonderful selection of relevant, recent, refreshing and rewarding resources. Thank you for subscribing to Mission Hits - I hope this edition excites and energises you in your ongoing participation in God's great global gospel purposes.
If you know anyone who might find this a useful monthly resource to receive, then please do pass this on and encourage them to sign up. And please feel free to send me any suggestions or feedback (chris.howles@fromeverynation.net).
Have a blessed and mission-minded month ahead, and I'll see you next time!
Chris (Howles)
Director of Cross-Cultural Training, Oak Hill College (UK)
Doctorate in Intercultural Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary (US)
ESSENTIALS (if you only have time for one...)
Essential for Missionaries
The title won't make much sense unless you read the article, but it's well worth doing. The 'A Life Overseas' blog gives us yet another wonderfully written, honest (painfully honest), real, heartfelt and God-honoring post that I imagine will resonate with, and be a blessing to, almost any missionary who reads it. God gives the vines and the worms (Jonah) - how will we respond?
Essential for Church Leaders
This excellent edition of 'Postings' by Catalyst Services looks at some general guidelines and good questions to ask when people from 6 different life stages (student, single, young family, retiree etc.) come to you expressing an interest in serving cross-culturally. Well worth church leaders reading now and then bookmarking for when these conversations arrive…
Essential for Mission Agency Workers
A set of 50 well-presented (social media-able) quotes from 50 years of the Lausanne movement. These are rich and rewarding, and I strongly suspect they will give mission agencies something fascinating to ponder and pray about as they keep on renewing their understanding of global mission today.
Essential for Christians Partnering as Senders
What should you do if there are tensions, disagreements, or severe disunities in your church mission committee about some aspect of missions strategy or sending? This must be a common problem. Some useful advice here…
GENERAL (well worth your time)
Greg Mathias here with some important biblical and missiological reflections on how to serve Christ in these days of unprecedented global movement and migration. Excellent introductory post on this topic for the Upstream Collective blog.
If you're interested in thought-provoking, out-of-the-box missiological thinking then signing up to MissioNexus CEO Ted Esler's blog is essential. Here's another great example as he argues for the huge inadequacies (even absurdities) of the 2% 'unreached' figure, yet also argues that it's necessary. "Defining "unreached people groups" is fraught with problems…[but] the problem is not the 2% number. The problem is that readers of our numbers do not understand the limitations that surround them."
"What Luther and Calvin are for evangelical Christians globally, Kwame Bediako is for many African evangelicals." Christianity Today article about Kwame Bediako to commemorate 20 years of his highly influential collection of essays 'Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience.' This is the sort of intro article that should get you into reading some of Bediako's work, and reading Bediako's work is highly recommend for anyone working in and alongside African Christianity.
AUDIO/VISUAL (podcasts & videos)
I must admit I really enjoyed this 37-min podcast episode by CMS Australia. David Williams is full of fascinating insights and applications as he discusses orality and storytelling both in majority world contexts and there In Australia (/the West). Really illuminating.
Dr Scott Hildreth lays out his framework for thinking through contextualisation in mission. Not all will agree, but this is a clear and helpful articulation of one approach, and worth engaging with well.
"Dr Miriam Adeney shares about the importance of diversity and unity in the church. She pays particular attention to issues of race and ethnicity, and talks about how those issues can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of mission efforts." I found the fourfold categorisation of how ethnic minorities relate with mainstream majority churches really helpful and illuminating.
DIGGING DEEPER (challenging but rewarding)
"The Majority World now sends more workers than the West is a cause for serious reflection on the international mission agency model. What needs to change? What new models might we pursue? Ones that promote humility, not hubris; mutuality, not management; and collaboration, not control. And how might Majority World agencies and churches encourage those of us in the West to ground our good intentions for mutual mission sending partnerships across the world church?" Such a interesting and important article from Michael Prest (UFM, UK) for Lausanne Global Analysis.
The St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology entry for 'missio Dei' by Chung-Hyun Baik and Sinwoong Kim. This is an extensive essay looking at the origins, contested meaning, biblical basis, and missiological outworkings of the term. It's not a quick read, but its precise and thorough. Put the kettle on, and enjoy!
Many of us love to think we can count the number of missionaries in the world, and then make statements/conclusions/analyses of what's going on. In reality, it's almost impossible to do so with any reasonable sense of accuracy or clarity. In this article Dr Gina Zurlo (Co-Director for the Center for the Study of Global Christianity) explains the challenges involved: "World Christianity is simply too large and too diverse. But at the same time, we cannot simply abandon the topic altogether, as missionary sending remains an important feature of Christian life and commitment around the world."
BOOKS (recent releases)
Links are to Amazon for best info/reviews. Other outlets are available...
Andy McCullough
"The global Church in the twenty-first century has lots to say about mission. The greatest energy for mission, and therefore missiology (the study of mission), is in the Global South. Andy McCullough reflects on mission using John’s Gospel, but with a global perspective. He contends that we must, at all costs, avoid outdated modes of cross-cultural missions that smack of colonialism and defunct ways of approaching missions that are out of sync with global realities."
Justin A. Schell
"What was God’s mission when he chose to create? And why, through the Savior’s death on the cross and the witness of his church, does he continue to redeem the very creation that rebels against him? To answer these imperative questions, author Justin Schell takes readers on a canonical journey exploring the mission of the eternal God―Father, Son, and Spirit. Drawing insights from creation, the exodus of God’s people, the suffering servant, the Great Commission, and consummation, this book examines the purpose and beauty of God’s great story."
Michael Barram & John R. Franke
"Rooted in and advocating for a postmodern and postcolonial understanding of mission, Liberating Scripture is the first book-length study designed specifically to introduce readers to the emerging subfield of biblical interpretation known as missional hermeneutics. The authors provide a thoroughgoing overview of the background and development, rationale, terminology, and methodology of missional hermeneutics, doing for biblical interpretation what Missional Church (edited by Darrell Guder et al., 1998) did for reimagining the church in light of the missio Dei."
MISCELLANEOUS (varied but valuable)
With over 400,000 views in 2 months, this 20-min video has generated a lot of interest. Steven Morales (from Radical) talks with Eric Foley, the CEO of Voice of Martyrs Korea, to learn how the North Korean church is not only growing, but has played a role in missionary work in some of the hardest places on earth. One notable statement is that the Church in North Korea is growing faster than the church in South Korea.
100 years ago Eric Liddell won gold at the Paris Olympics. The following year he went to China to live (and 18 years later die) as a missionary there. This new 6-episode podcast series from Radical.net tells his story in the context of what God is doing in mission both then and now in Scotland, France, China and more.
Last month St Mellitus College (London, UK) hosted an afternoon's convention on global migration and mission. The speakers (including NT Wright, Elaine Storkey, Chris Wright, Vinoth Ramachandra, Ruth Padilla Deborst, Todd Johnson, Easten Law, Ruth Valerio, Krish Kandiah, Harvey Kwiyani, and so many more) were impressively illuminating. Videos are now available and highly recommended!
QUOTES (wise one-liners)
(1) "The heart for God-glorifying missions starts with joy in the gospel. Our churches must first cherish the God who sent his own Son to save sinners like us."
Andy Johnson
(2) "Crossing cultural frontiers is not only a prerequisite for the spread of the Christian movement; it is also the means whereby the worldwide community of faith increasingly experiences the fullness of the Gospel."
Jehu Hanciles
(3) 'The Great Commission is an expanding and self-replicating task, not a ticking clock for the end times'
Chris Wright
GLOBAL INSIGHT (critical news & trends)
After decades of non-stop increases, non-religious Americans have plateaued, and the share of non-religious Americans has stopped rising in any meaningful way. "This really may be the end of an era in American religious demography. The trend lines might have reached an inflection point, and we can demarcate religious history around this time period"
“The spirits help you. They’re always around” With 2m Haitians on the verge of famine, and 360,000 homeless, Vodou grows powerful as Haitians seek solace from unrelenting gang violence. "Vodou is the system that Haitians have developed to deal with the suffering of this life, a system whose object is to minimize pain, avoid disaster, soften losses, and strengthen the survivors as much as the survival instinct"
"West Africa is now divided into two: broadly pro-western coastal countries; and a more “Russophile” outlook in the land-locked states of the Sahel, the name given to a vast, coup-prone zone that stretches across the continent from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Moscow is keen to extend its sphere of influence on a global scale, find further export markets and access natural resources. Africa presents the perfect opportunity to execute those ideas"
TWEETS (short but significant)
STATS (noteworthy numbers)
(1) In Niger, 76% of girls are married before they reach the age of 18. Over a quarter of girls are married aged 14 or under. The average woman there has almost 7 children. SOURCE
(2) 14% of Londoners are black. 60% of London's Christians are black. SOURCE
(3) Iraq's Christian population was 12% in 1950. Today, it is thought to be as low as 2%. SOURCE
ONLINE EVENTS (Zoom seminars and conferences)
Author's privilege! Starting on 17th September, and running for 12 weeks, I’m leading a global mission module at Oak Hill College London that is being made available to others outside the college with the aim of helping and blessing the wider global mission community. The course is called ‘Global Mission in the Local Church’ and is ideal for anyone wishing to think more about the theological and biblical basis of global mission, the roles of local churches and mission agencies in that, and to think through some important issues (finances, contextualisation, missionary care etc.) and trends (polycentric mission, unreached peoples, spiritual warfare etc.) in 21st century world mission. Participants would join online for 2 hours a week (1.40pm every Tuesday), and they’d be welcome/encouraged to join in with 1-2 hours of further reading and online discussion during the week if able.
"As a run-up to the Fourth Lausanne Congress in Seoul-Incheon this September, the Jewish Evangelism Issue Network is hosting a webinar on Messianic Judaism. The aim of this webinar is to help to learn about the nuances and gain an understanding of Messianic Judaism. Gifted Messianic Jewish speakers will be sharing and answering questions. This gathering is open to anyone who is curious about and seeking to understand Messianic Judaism." Free webinar from Lausanne, 5th August 1600 BST.
"Church Missions Leaders have the responsibility of influencing the people in the congregation to care deeply about reaching those outside of our orbit while also working skillfully with lead pastors, missions agencies, missionaries, field partners, etc., etc. What are some effective ways a CML can influence the congregation? What are some CML best practices that have proven to be productive when it comes to mobilizing the local church to go?" Webinar with George Beals (Director of Strategic Development for World Hope International) 1pm EDT Tuesday August 13th (free for MissioNexus members).
HIGHLIGHTS (Most popular from last month's Mission Hits…)
JUST FOR FUN (unrelated but interesting!)
47 songs from around the world from 2024 (including Palestine, Bhutan, Uganda, India, Niger and many more). Nice to branch out occasionally isn't it?!
The movie zooms through all well-known scales of the universe from minuscule elementary particles out to the gigantic cosmic web. 3-minutes that cannot fail to make you say 'wow!' and hopefully 'Praise the Lord'!
Live music, swimming goggles, toilet paper, mirrors, glasses, photographs…a long list of things that most of us probably just take for granted but shouldn't!
Full searchable archives of all Mission Hits resources from edition #1
Questions, comments, or suggestions for the next edition?
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