Categories
Mission Observations

Is the Term ‘Missionary’ Past Its Sell By Date?

This post is tangentially linked to my (as yet unfinished) series on whether or not the West should still send out missionaries (1, 2). In a comment on the first part of the series, David Ker wrote: You know I’ve struggled with being called a missionary. I’ve even questioned why my sending organization calls us […]

Categories
Africa Mission

Walk a Mile in His Flipflops

A very thought provoking video Walking in Shadow (generic) from AIM On-Field Media on Vimeo.

Categories
Church: World Observations

Should the West Be Sending Missionaries? History

This is the first of what is planned to be a three part mini-series. Before any of my colleagues get upset, I do believe that the West should continue to send out missionaries to the rest of the world, but asking hard questions is a good way of making us face up to some issues […]

Categories
Mission Reviews

Landmark Essays

A while ago, I decided that I’d like to get to know more about the Celtic folk group Capercaille, so I bought the CD An Introduction to Capercaillie – Heart of the Highland. This was a big mistake. It’s not that the CD is not a good one; far from that. It is wonderful. The […]

Categories
Mission

Final Reflections on Lausanne 3

There is no doubt about it, the Lausanne 3 meeting in Cape Town was a wonderful event, but it is also true that it could have been so much better if some things had been done otherwise. The experience of meeting with 4,500 Christians from all over the world was inspirational. I’ve worked in many […]

Categories
Bible Translation Mission

World Mission in Miniature

Last week, I attended a meeting organised by Wycliffe Bible Translators International. Leaders from organisations affiliated to Wycliffe International spent a week looking at some of the global issues which affect the work of Bible translation and Scripture engagement worldwide. For me, the highlight of the week occurred in the very first hour that we […]

Categories
Short-Term Mission

Missionary Confidential: When Sympathy Turns Demeaning

This post from Missionary Confidential is well worth reading and pondering upon. I suspect that it could also be applied to some evangelistic work in the UK, too. Just over a year ago, I read “Following Up on Your Mission Trip” and was jolted by the honesty of this: “I first became aware of the […]

Categories
Mission

God and the World

“Isn’t it amazing that the God who made heaven and earth is willing to entrust his mission to people like us.” Someone one said this in a meeting I was part of this morning. It’s a familiar thought and I’ve said the same thing fairly often. This morning, however, I had a bit of an […]

Categories
Bible & Mission

A People for Others

When God set about his great project of world redemption in the wake of Genesis 12, he chose to do so not by whisking individuals off up to heaven, but by calling into existence a community of blessing. Starting with one man and his barren wife, then miraculously transforming them into a large family within […]

Categories
Christian Life Mission

Mission and Repentance

The first recorded command of Jesus was not “Go”, but “Repent”. In this respect, he joined the ranks of the great Old Testament prophets for that was their unanimous message to God’s people across all the centuries of their existence. We have seen how some of the most profound missional passages in the Old Testament […]