A lot of Short-term Mission teams come from "The West" to the Philippines. And quite a few STM teams leave the Philippines to serve in other parts of the world as well. And they can do genuine good. When they come in as genuine partners of local ministries, when they come in with welcome skills …
Category: Missional Churches
Look at the role of churches recognizing their purpose in accomplishing God’s mission.
Missions in Samaria Article
I wrote an article based on a series of four sermons I did back in 2012 that became four posts on this blog. If that was not enough, I am considering utilizing the article to develop a chapter of a book that looks at Acts 1:8, particularly structured on the four locations mentioned (Jerusalem, Judea, …
Opinions on Southern Baptist Missions, Churches, and Missionaries
Thom Rainer's blogsite had a podcast on why it is important for churches to ensure that the missionaries they support have commonality of doctrine, vision, and focus. Associated with that post was a comment by a listener that appeared to be asking (paraphrasing and reading into it): "Why should churches select and support individual missionaries …
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Growing Your Church in Four Dimensions
According to the North American Society for Church Growth: Church growth is that discipline which investigates the nature, expansion, planting, multiplication, function, and health of Christian churches as they relate to the effective implementation of God’s commission to “make disciples of all peoples” I taught a class in "Principles of Church Growth and Multiplication" …
Missional “Surface Area”. Part 2
I like to take the idea of church impact as related to what I think of as “surface area”. In chemical reactions and heat transfer (to name two things) the rate is proportional to surface area of the relevant bodies (warm versus cold bodies, or reacting chemicals). This goes back to the organic idea. If …
Missional “Surface Area”, Part 1
<I wrote this something like 8 years ago. I think I still agree with it. But I also now see the challenge of maintaining it. The greater the distance the harder it is to maintain connections. Even though we live in a "wired" age, most of us don't think that way... we don't feel close …
A Burst of Light and a Gentle Fading Away
I have been teaching Missions History this term in Seminary. Since I live and teach in Asia, I like to focus on missions history in Asia. Frankly, there is a lot more missions history in the East than the West anyway. In the first millennium, the churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Edessa spread the faith …
The Most Common Factor in Declining Churches
The Most Common Factor in Declining Churches.
Book Reflection: “The Mission of God” Part 2
This is a continuation of the reflections on “The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative” by Christopher J.H. Wright. NOTE: This is NOT a review... just things that the book got me thinking about. I haven't finished the book yet (I am slow sometimes, but I have to give it a STRONG recommendation …
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End of the Year Thoughts
2013 has come to an end. I am just going to throw out some fairly random items to close out the year. I. The following shows the top posts over 2013. I am not sure what to make of them. "St. Boniface and the Peregrini" seemed to be caught up in some search engines for …