- 12/31 ~ CATCH THE VISION! ~ I Dare You to Go to www.Perspectives.org and Sign Up! by The List Guy (brownlikecoffee.com)
"Beginning in mid-January in 170+ locations around the country, our small but dedicated staff team (through 1,000 volunteer foot soldiers) will launch an assault on the Kingdom of darkness to destroy the works of the devil in order to expand and extend the Kingdom of God. You may not like my medical or military metaphors, but what I’m describing is something bigger than the wars in the Middle East, more important than global warming, certainly of more real, lasting value than what direction the worlds’ stock markets happen to be heading at the moment."
- 12/30 ~ LEADER'S SPEAK/VIDCAST ~ Loren Cunningham and the Unreached Peoples (Create Int'l/YWAM)
"Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission, gives a challenge to Christians around the world to initiate strategic missions toward the unreached peoples."
- 12/29 ~ TRAINING ~ The Mission Exchange Webinars for 2009 (davidmays.org)
"Get out your schedule and begin marking down which weekly webinars (for mission agency and local church mission leaders) you think would help your team and ministry bear greater fruit for the kingdom.
- 12/27 ~ STRATEGIC TOOL ~ How Missions-Active Is Your Church? Discovering the Minimum Factor by Steve Hoke (davidmays.org)
Steve Hoke of Church Resource Ministries, created this concise and helpful measuring tool that uses varying lengths of staves that make up a barrell as an anology for the various strengths and weaknesses of any ministry plan.
- 12/26 ~ RESOURCE REVIEWS ~ Brother Yun, the Esimbi of Cameroon, and more
by Marti Smith (Missions Catalyst)
» BOOK - Living Water from Brother Yun
» EVENT - African American Mission Conference
» PRAYER GUIDE - The Esimbi of Cameroon
» FREE ARTICLES - Mission Issues
» BOOK - Perspectives Study Program Releases Fourth Edition
- 12/25 ~ HUMILITY ~ The Shy Virtue of Christmas by John Piper (desiringGod)
"... how can looking at Jesus’ Christmas humility help us? Our humility, if there is any at all, is based on our finiteness, our fallibility, and our sinfulness. But the eternal Son of God was not finite. He was not fallible. And he was not sinful. So, unlike our humility, Jesus’ humility originated some other way."
- 12/24 ~ HINDSIGHT/FORESIGHT ~ History Suggests Sacrifice Needed Now to Support Missions (imb.org)
"After 9/11, the downturn in our nation’s economy and the resulting drop in charitable giving caused us to restrict the number of new missionary appointments. When Southern Baptists received that news they responded as never before. Within one year, all restrictions were lifted and workers once again began to flow to the harvest fields. Still, the fallout of that financial crisis continued for several years. What did we learn? Two lessons stand out."
- 12/23 ~ SHORT-TERM ~ CURE International Increases Qualifications for Missions (Mission Network News)
CURE International is raising its standards for short term missions participants in order to increase effectiveness in the ministry.
- 12/22 ~ ORALITY/PODCASTS ~ Storying Around - Parts 1 & 2 by Andrea (story4all)
Part 1: Andrea, of Simply the Story, shares some cool things Jesus is doing around the globe through Bible storytelling.
Part 2: More exciting stories about storytelling as an outreach tool and how the Lord has been using storytelling around the globe!
- 12/20 ~ TECHNOLOGY & THE GREAT COMMANDMENT ~ "Houston, We Have an Opportunity"
Remember the movie, Apollo 13? In the face of impending doom, existing technology and resources were reformatted to find an answer to their problem. Following are three articles that reminded me of this movie. With concentrated, innovative thinking and a heart to bless the poor, people are coming up with answers to what many would see as insurmountable obstacles to providing standard health care for the developing world.
» Inventor's 2020 Vision: To Help 1 Billion of The World's Poorest See Better by Esther Addley
» Scientists Hack Cellphone to Analyze Blood, Detect Disease, Help Developing Nations by Dave Bullock
» Looking Under the Hood and Seeing an Incubator by Madeline Drexler
Thanks to momentum-mag.org & tonysheng.blogspot.com for finding these articles.
- 12/19 ~ ASSISTING THE POOR ~ Microfinance, Now More Micro by Ken Walker (Christianity Today)
On an encouraging note, this article points out that while secular micro-finance is taking a hit from hard economic times, Christian micro-finance is benefitting.
- 12/18 ~ BAM ~ What’s So Different about Business as Mission? by Sarah Dusek (Business As Mission Network)
"With the huge explosion of mission terminology in recent years the potential for confusion abounds. Terminology such as Business as Mission (BAM), Tent Making, Work Place Ministries and Enterprise Development all refer to very different mission strategies but all fall under the banner of economic-based mission or Kingdom Business. For the purpose of understanding where one term ends and another begins a brief explanation of the major terms currently being utilised will be explored here."
- 12/17 ~ CONFERENCE ~ Called by the Lord to Summer Short-Term Missions? by Michael Ireland (Assist News Service)
"Whether you're in a college setting, a leader in a church, or someone who has been called on to be a leader in Short-Term Missions, the 20th annual National Short-Term Missions Conference may be just the place for you. Organized for leaders of Short-Term Mission, the conference is designed with the triple aims of preparing leaders with practical essentials, promoting discussion, insight and innovation, as well as providing inspiration for personal spiritual growth. The 2009 conference will be held January 23-25, 2009 in Atlanta, GA, with pre-conference options beginning on January 22."
- 12/16 ~ PERSECUTION ~ Russia Plans 'Liquidation' of Ministries (WorldNetDaily)
"Dozens of Christian organizations that have been providing social services, ministry and other help inside Russia are being targeted for "liquidation" by the nation's Ministry of Justice, according to a new report."
- 12/15 ~ PRACTICAL MOBILIZATION ~ Annual Christmas Gift Giving Edition by Shane Bennett (Missions Catalyst)
"This year's column features two lists. The first pulls together several gifts that might help people grow a vision for the world. Or in other words: gifts that mobilize. The second list pulls together gifts that I think a mobilizer might find helpful and fun."
- 12/10 ~ PRAYER ~ United, Focused Prayer: Changes in the Way We Are Praying for the World, Part 1 by Steve Hawthorne (Lausanne World Pulse)
"According to a report by David Barrett and Todd Johnson, there are an estimated 200 million Christians praying regularly for the advance of the gospel and world evangelization. While this number is significant, the ways in which prayer has morphed and movements of prayer have matured are even more noteworthy. There is an increasing sense that the most significant days of prayer are before us." Note: Watch for Part 2 next month.
- 12/09 ~ GUARD YOUR HEART ~ How to Avoid Inheritance Disputes by John Piper (desiringGod.org)
Piper shares from a very precious passage of scripture involving David and Jonathon's son, Mephibosheth, related to a wrong done to Mephibosheth regarding his rightful inheritance. If you are struggling over a similar injustice, may the Lord use this passage to set you free for continuing onward in your World Christian discipleship.
- 12/08 ~ STRATEGIC INVESTMENT ~ Donate Online to Urbana by Jim Tebbe (urbana.org)
I don't believe there could be a better investment than helping to provide scholarship funding for students wanting to attend Urbana 09, where 20,000 students will be saturated with mission vision, prayer, worship, fellowship and connections with hundreds of ministries and thousands of opportunities to take the gospel where it's needed most.
- 12/03 ~ BOOKNOTES ~ Leadership Essentials by Greg Ogden & Daniel Meyer (davidmays.org)
"(Pastors) Ogden and Meyer have produced an excellent study tool to be used with an existing leadership team, a group of potential leaders, a mentoring relationship, a small group, or a classroom. It is primarily a Bible study, but more. Each section includes a core truth that states the theme; a memory verse; an inductive Bible study; a reading; and a leadership exercise. The readings are very good."
- 12/02 ~ BAM ~ Business As Missions Is A Hot Topic by Doug Lucas (The Backpage/Brigada Today)
"Maybe this "BAM" thing is so hot because today's twenty-something's are eager to grasp the latest fad. But as for me, I think not. I think there are some concrete reasons. First, they're all so concerned about ministry among the poor. Launching a BAM ministry seems somehow more noble to them than "mere" preaching & teaching Christ. Second, I believe the interest in unreached peoples has finally hit stride. They realize that they'll *need* BAM to get into most of these least-reached locations. Third, it almost seems that today's twenty-something's have come to value more highly the *concrete* and tangible outputs of a BAM ministry." Note: For more BAM links, click here.
- 12/01 ~ INDIA ~ Mumbai's People 'Numbed' by Terrorist Attacks, Need Prayer
by Erich Bridges (Baptist Press)
"The Mumbai attacks come in the wake of many violent incidents in India over the past year, including ongoing terrorism in Kashmir, bombings in multiple cities and extremist Hindu attacks on Christians in Orissa and other states. Even as India increases its international profile, increasing ethnic and religious tensions have led some Indian commentators to wonder if the nation will survive as a secular democracy."
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