News You Can Use

.. is a term used to describe a growing movement of individuals who leave their homes and churches in the global south with a vision to reach into unreached areas of the world. Living simply, and communicating with one or two people at a time, these power-full people are impacting areas of the world that Western missionaries rarely enter. Howard Brant (a worker with SIM living in Nairobi Kenya), is passionate about telling the story of God at work through them. If you would like to learn more of this exciting wave in the expansion of Christianity, you can subscribe to a newsletter (howa...@gmail.com) or visit the Emerging Missions Network blogspot. But beware! You may get excited by what you read.

Missional is a buzzword these days, and as is usually the case with buzzwords, the definition becomes fuzzy, if not totally unfocused. The Missional Mind is a newsletter that defines missional as being
“passionate about living out Jesus’ ministry of redemption. As His children bringing healing where sin has brought hurting, wholeness where sin has brought destruction, reconciliation for the sake of His name. Understanding our purpose and calling to “go and be” rather than “come and see.” Living incarnational lives by understanding the hopes, dreams, fears, and disappointments of the people in our culture and then addressing these issues by being Christ to them.”
The newsletter includes articles from current thinkers, and offers opportunity to respond via their blog page. It is part of the Authentic Books and PaterNoster Books website, and provides access to both print material and e-books for downloading. If you sign up to receive the newsletter, you can choose a FREE download of one of the e-books.

The Institute for Cross-Cultural Training is offering their Language Coach workshops twice during 2010. Mark your calendar now for February 21 – 26 in Budapest, Hungary, or March 1 – 6 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Both workshop venues offer pre-workshop sessions such as “Principles for effective language learning,” “Understanding language learning methods,” “Using proficiency guidelines,” and “Developing communicative competence.” This has been a very useful workshop for many of our language coaches around the world.  If you anticipate new workers coming to your Ministry Area, this will provide you with skills and tools to help them increase the effectiveness of language and cultural learning. We highly recommend it.  More information is available on their website, along with brochures and registration forms.

Our colleague Dave Broucek (now the International Ministries Director for the South American Mission, SAM) continues to bless us with his legendary reading list. Just the other day, he sent me this:

Last week I was given a wonderful little booklet by Henri Nouwen, The Spirituality of Fund-Raising, 2004. I read it over the weekend and found it to be very encouraging and very consistent with the emphasis we place on support development as a ministry. Nouwen really does a good job of countering the fear of ‘begging’ that dogs so many of us.”

Would you like to enhance your attitude toward the ministry of fundraising? Perhaps this booklet can help.

People in many cultures listen to a story far more readily than read a book. Even North-American culture is demonstrating a distinct preference for storytelling using visual media (translated: movies and YouTube). Storytelling is therefore a rapidly growing strategy for communicating truth to people who learn through listening. Orality Strategies provides a wide range of tools as well as well-researched resources, background, and rationale for effective use of orality methods.

CrossGlobal Link is presenting a training event for men and women in missions leadership who seek to understand, equip, and support women missionaries. The three day workshop (to be held in Chicago IL, April 29 – May 1, 2010) will help you gain insight into the issues, needs and concerns that women face, and help you discover and share resources to encourage women to flourish in cross-cultural ministry. More information is available on their website, www.crossgloballink.org.

Gina Rollins (Wheaton, Ministry Advancement) put us on to this conference sponsored by the sending church of Dave and Joy Weaver (Philippines). It will be held at Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham AL January 21 – 24, 2010. The church will waive the $95 cost of the conference, and will refund the $25 registration fee when the person attends. There is more information on their website, and Gina (grollins@teamworld.org) will put you in contact with Tom Cheely, their missions pastor to make the arrangements.

The International Missionary Training Network, a department of the World Evangelical Alliance, is offering a 12-week distance learning forum that examines the role of Christian witness in the international workplace. The cost is $50.00, and the next cohort begins January 10. There are twelve unit readings that frame the discussion among the participants. Optional weekly assignments offer a focused opportunity for personal growth. For more information, visit the My Way to the Nations website.

Jim Johnson (former South Asia region) shared this tip with us:

After much research in spring 2007, before I proceeded to buy 50 commentaries covering the Bible, I researched book-shopping comparison search engines. By far the best seemed to be www.bookfinder4u.com . I highly recommend it for saving money on books.  It compares the best prices available from Amazon, eBay, and 128 other sites, then arranges them in price order. Thanks, Jim, for bringing this to our attention.

Brigada (an online resource for the missions community) published a set of guidelines developed by ReachGlobal as a seed for thought on how to relate to Facebook and other social networking tools on the internet. As more international workers increase their visibility and communication using these tools, it is helpful to think through some of the implications for effective ministry that these tools present. Are you ready to ask the tough questions regarding whether to use the internet for networking purposes? What guidelines will you implement for yourself? How will your children’s “tweets” impact how you serve? Can you be intentional about developing your social network for the Kingdom? Let us know how you are facing the Facebook opportunity. Click on the “Comments” link in the blog to share your thoughts.