These Weeks in the Mission Blogosphere

From Mission resources, to the missionary spirit of Independent Baptists, to Swarming, over the last few week I have read many good Mission posts. Here are a few of my highlights from the last several weeks in the Mission Blogosphere:

• MissionaryHelp.com - This is a site I ran across recently. He has recently pointed out several new resources that could benefit the Mission. Two resources deal with the reaching of oral peoples. They include a powerpoint and a book. While we may not adopt all of the approaches suggested, there is definitely some work to be done in this area. He also introduced Google Voice. I do not believe it will replace Skype any time soon, but I do plan to begin utilizing it soon for call management. It shows some promise even for missionaries.

• The Missionary Spirit - Way of Life posted a wonderful charge to Independent Fundamental Baptists concerning their missionary fervor. It is a reprint of a 1997 article in The Fundamentalist Digest. After recapping the happenings among 100 seminary students at the Andover Seminary in the 19th century, the writer asks "Could a group of 100 students be found in any fundamental Baptist seminary in the USA today who have banded themselves together solely for seeking God's will concerning missionary service?" I pray that this exists, but I'm afraid to look.

• This Generation in Mission - Missions Mandate posted some comments made by Southern Baptist Al Mohler concerning the future of missions in the hands of the next generation. They are worthy thoughts to be considered by Independent Baptists as well. What will the Mission look like in our hands? Is there really coming a "tidal wave of participatory missions unlike anything seen by the Christian church since the first century"? I pray so. How can we ensure it?

• What Kind of Pastors Do We Look For? - Desiring God included a great post about qualifications for church leadership. While Independent Fundamental Baptists do not generally look for "the creative type," we do perhaps place a lot of emphasis in areas that God does not.

• Living Simply and Humbly in Ministry - This Lausanne article has some good suggestions for living simply on the field.

• {Missional} Space Valuables- Grady at {missional} space had several good posts over the last few weeks.

Get a Hobby! - Good suggestions for missionaries

Life Beyond the 10/40 Window - Exploring some negative impact of the concept

The Way of the Master? Was it really His way? While I think that The Way of the Master has met a need (concerning the 'sinner's prayer' and repentance), I too believe we ought to be careful about 'methodizing' the approach of Christ to sinners.

• Network for Strategic Missions resources - The Network linked to several good resources and posts.

Is the blood of the martyrs really the seed of the church?

How not to use images well in powerpoints

Using Google Maps for the Mission

• Balance in Missionary Communication - Missionary Confidential cries out for balance in the use of communication technology in the lives of missionaries.

• Justin Long on Swarms - Justin has posted some good clarifying articles on swarms. The swarming concept does have some good potential for the Mission.

For those new to swarming

What swarms are not

Swarms, Teams, and Partnerships

These Weeks in the Mission Blogosphere

It has been a bit since I had time to include one of these end-of-the-week posts. As a result, this one will include good Bogosphere discussions over the past several week. However, I will not comment on them as much as I normally would.

1. Pragmatism in Missions: Missions Mandate provided a link to a very good article on this subject, worthy to be read. How much of our method is pragmatic? How much truly Scriptural?


2. Desiring God Posts: the ministry of John Piper, Desiring God, had several good posts. I cannot endorse a lot of what Piper puts out (such as his Calvanism and Christian hedonism), but his missions-related material is often good. I encourage you to read these posts: Bad Times are Good for Missions, 10 Ways to Help Kids Love Missions, and Piper's new book free for download, Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ.


3. The Best Way to Start a Church is to Start a Church: This is from The M Blog. It is a good post concerning obedience oriented education. Let me suggest that our education must be obedience oriented or it is not Christian. Remember: "Teach them to observe (obey) all things whatsoever I have commanded you."


4. Sending Church: Blogger, Larry McCrary, spends much time focusing on the role of the local sending church. He is in a series of posts on the subject. This post was particularly good.

The recent series here:

Urgent Need: Solutions for the Coming Missionary Support Crisis

1. Initial Post: demonstrating the facts behind the crisis


2. Solutions: an offering of several solutions for the crisis


3. Paul and Secular Work


4. Secular Jobs as Partial Solutions


5. The Missionary Support Model of Jesus

Coming Soon:

1. Single Male Missionaries, their contribution to the current crisis and to field effectiveness


2. Supporting Fewer Missionaries at Higher Levels


3. Resource: Mission InfoBank
   

This Week in the Mission Blogosphere

Here's the line-up for this week in the Mission Blogosphere:

• "Simple Church", not so simple?: The MissioMishmash had a couple of good posts about "Simple Church". This is often a similar concept as organic and house church. There is quite a movement developing around the attempted return to a more New Testament model of church life. This blogger's first post contained a brief description and off-the-cuff analysis of their ideas. The second post was a great simplification of what we often complicate. I encourage you to read them both. I have done quite a bit of reading about house and organic churches. Like this blogger, I see a great amount of New Testament merit to many of their ideas. However, in the process of throwing out the bathwater, they sometimes throw out the baby. They throw out pastors (practically) altogether. They (practically) throw out preaching altogether in church life. However, all must admit, that we have moved to a more business-like model of church life (though we constantly deny this verbally, we affirm it in practice). We often function more like an organization (constantly adding programs and committees) rather than an organism (with the Spirit freely leading through the gifted members). Does there need to be change? Definitely. In my estimation, this blogger offers a good rough evaluation of the Simple Church approach, read it.
• 5 Common Great Commission Myths: The Network for Strategic Missions hosted an article by another writer about some myths. Here are the 4 myths I thought were most significant: 1. The myth of accidental discipleship (no, it is intentional) 2. Jesus wants converts (wrong, He wants disciples) 3. When I am ready and able, I will start making disciples (do it now, for He is able) 4. Making disciples is great advice (no, it's a command). Oh, if we all (me included) could overcome this type of thinking! Please read this article, and ponder what myths you have held. Are you willing to be obedient to the command today?

This Week in the Mission Blogosphere

OK. Here's the line-up for this week in the Mission Blogosphere:

• Why are we so afraid of NT house churches? On the blog of an IMB missionary, The M Blog, there was some discussion of house churches. His first post provided a description of a house church meeting on his field. This was done in response to some objections to house churches he had seen elsewhere. The second post contained a lengthy email response. Here's my two cents: Some of the objections are legitimate. But the main objection I usually here is that they just won't work in our (U.S.) culture. So we act as though we must have a building before we can have a church. In fact, church planters often say that he "found a church" when he only found a building (I read this recently in the prayer letter of an Asian missionary). In my estimation, our obsession with buildings often strangles new (and old) churches. Think about it, in so many areas we make a concerted effort not to give into cultural trends. But in this area and others we have totally caved to a materialistic, corporate-minded, culture. We say we do this because we believe it is the only way people will come in our culture, though we won't (and shouldn't) put a rock band on the platform for the same reason. I do not think that house churches are the only biblical churches (for there's no command given for it). However, I will say that our discomfort with simple house churches here, opposed with Paul's comfort with them, may be an indication of deeper differences we have with Paul (concerning things like "what is a church, essentially?"). In the U.S. we may be comfortable with churches beginning in homes, but we are not comfortable with them staying in homes. Why? Your answer to that question may reveal a great deal about what you believe a church is.

• Advise For All Who Want to Make and Impact - Two Mission bloggers gave a few pieces of good advice to all who want to reach others for Christ. One focused on new church planters, while the other was more general. They basically boil down to "focus on the people." Don't be distracted from the people. Study them, not through books as much as getting out among them. Spend time among them. They are more important than your website, a building, etc. Find ways to engage people in your community. Don't shelter yourself from them as we often do: in our cars, in the self checkout at Walmart, on the internet, etc. If you expect to win people to Christ, you must first be where they are. This is an area that I struggle with, but it can be overcome.

• World News - Are you praying for the world? Do you know what is happening? Iran is in an uproar, which is only being heard through Facebook, Twitter, and other internet means. The elections are being called a farse and many of the people are demanding change, for just a sliver of freedom. Christians in India are also rejoicing over the election of their more secular party and the ousting of the Hindu nationalist party. These regions are strongholds of Satan. Let us remember that there is a world outside our borders, a world where Christians suffer because of their faith. Let us pray according to 1 Tim 2:1-2, that their governments would give them peace, that the Gospel could spread as it ought to.

Until next time.

This Week in the Mission Blogosphere

Three posts and a poem. That is our theme for this week in the Mission blogosphere.

• How NOT to Drop a Missionary's Support - An Evangelical foreign missionary made some good comments concerning missionary support ethics. It is inevitable that missionaries will lose some support while on the field. This is accepted. However, unacceptable is the way in which support is often dropped. No notice, no call, no explanation, just no more support. The blogger gave 3 reasons why support is sometimes dropped in this manner: Cowardice, Cruelty, and/or Incompetence. What are some rules that should be followed when support has to be dropped? Follow the Golden Rule, give as much advance notice as possible, try to do it when they are back home, give an explanation, investigate to make sure it is a legitimate reason, tell if it is temporary or permanent, continue partnering with them in prayer. Overall it is a helpful post, and worthy of a read.

• Ten Little Missionaries - The same missionary posted a poem about the missionary call. Its rythm and ryme aren't the greatest, but it is a good poem nevertheless. I am sure that almost all of us know people who match the description of each of the 10 little missionaries.
  

• Lay Mission - We all know that today we have developed a 'professionalized' ministry, where only the 'highly trained' and ordained do the work. This is obviously not Christ's plan for His churches. Instead, the plan is for the whole church to be involved in the work of the Mission, the 'professionals' being there to help them in that direction. This week a couple bloggers commented on this theme. One suggested that the work of Mission should be carried out by the whole church (particularly the 'lay members'), with fewer 'professionals' needed. The other posted a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd Jones asked "Do we manifest the freedom of the New Testament church" with the giftings of all her members mobilized for ministry. "The notion," he said, "of people belonging to the church in order to come to sit down and fold their arms and listen, with just two or three doing everything, is quite foreign to the New Testament, and it seems to me it is foreign to what has always been the characteristic of the church in times of revival and of reawakening." While we certainly would not adhere to all that these two bloggers would suggest of us, there is no doubt that every 'lay' member, the whole church, should be fully engaged in the Mission. The suggestion is toward a reorganization of the way 'professionals' (in churches and mission boards) are used in missions, toward a mobilizing role, rather than doing most of the work.

Posting Here Soon:

Urgent Need: Solutions for the Coming Missionary Support Crisis (I am waiting on some numbers to get in before I post this. It will be a must read for all concerned about our world Mission.)

Mission Resource: Skype (How can it be used to mobilize churches in the Mission? How can it be used to improve local church missionary care and reduce missionary attrition?)

Building a Biblical Mission Strategy (Considering a biblical [i.e. God's] theology of Mission, what should our overall Mission endeavors look like? Where can improvement be made?)

Just click on the 'follow' or 'subscribe' links to the right to be notified when new posts are up.

This Week in the Mission Blogosphere

This week the Mission Blogophere gave us several interesting posts. In addition to these I wanted to include an old post from the "Voice of the Martyrs" blog that was challenging. So here it goes:

1. Solving the Southern Baptist missions dilemma (and others?) - One Mission blogger, Grady Bauer, posted a possible solution to the Convention's missions problem. The same day, another blogger, Alan Knox, affirmed Grady's thinking on his own blog. What was the solution? Encourage missionaries to get secular, income-producing jobs. On Alan's site, this caused quite a bit of raucous in the comments. Some accused him of some "personal agenda", an axe to grind, etc. But is it really a bad idea? Not only is it very practical, but it is also very biblical. The greatest church planter in history (Paul) worked for an income almost everywhere he went. I concur that this option should be considered by all missionaries and sought by many (most?). This will be discussed in much more detail on this blog with an up-and-coming series.
2. The unreached may be more reachable than we think - Justin Long of "The Network for Strategic Missions" posted about the location of unreached peoples. He notes that nearly all (90%) missionaries are working with people groups that already have access to the Gospel, while almost no missionaries (1%) work among unreached people groups. The reason often given is that these groups live in restricted countries. However, Justin pointed out that an enourmous number of these people live in relatively open countries, waiting to be reached. What will we do about them?
3. If you lost your Bible would it change your life? - This was a question posed by an old post on the "Voice of the Martyrs" blog quite a while back. A persecuted Christian prisoner made this statement: "In prison, the most difficult thing was to live without a Bible." Would it affect you as much?

Should missionaries consider working in a secular field for an income while they are church planting? 

What will we do about those unreached peoples who are reachable?

If you lost your Bible would it change your life?

Three important questions. What will you do?

This Week in the Mission Blogosphere

Church planting, economy, and methods. These three, in strange ways, seemed to characterize this week in the Mission Blogosphere. If we are satisfied with how church planting is going, then no need to consider stirrings this week. If not, it would do us well to listen in.

1. Southern Baptist Convention Worries- The SBC has recently made known its economic concerns. Last year the Convention sent 1,088 new missionaries to the foreign field. This year that number will be "significantly smaller." It isn't that there aren't people that feel called to go. It's just that there is no money to send them. Amidst this has come questions of funding misallocation (with only 2.5% of SBC offerings goint to international missions). Several solutions have been offered. New short and intermediate term mission endeavors are already on hold. There's a push to change the Cooperative formula to a heavier emphasis on foreign church planting, decreasing support for US works. There is also debate ensuing concerning a proposed reorginization of the Convention, due to an alleged bloated and bureucratic denominational structure. So this is what is happening at the SBC. The economy is affecting us too though, isn't it (nod your head)? There are some serious impending missionary support problems in the Independent Baptist systems as well. What steps need to be taken?
   
2. The 'Home' Church Movement - A question was proposed to Bro. Cloud regarding the 'home' church movement. His response is worth reading. The house church movement in the US is often (though not always) motivated by an unwillingness to submit to any pastoral authority. As far as this is true, it is wicked. Here are my own thoughts: intentionally planting house churches (even in the US) is not wrong in itself. In fact, it may be right. It may do us good to foster the idea that the church is not a building, but people. Further, being (biblically) content with meeting in houses may be the only way that we can keep up with population growth in certain metro areas. We must envision more than the planting of some churches. Our vision must be for a church planting movement if we ever hope to 'keep up'. Is setting the goal of many reproducing house churches in an area a possible solution for these times?
   
3. Why Church Planting Movements Don't Happen in Christianized Lands - One missionary blog tried to answer this in a recent post. The 3 reasons given were: lack of obedience to the Word (especially concerning Jesus' commanded church planting methods), traditional ways of doing church (just watching the main man on Sunday), and a lack of willingness to suffer and sacrifice. True? Largely, yes. While I don't approve of all of the solutions he offers, the question and the reasons deserve our careful attention. Church planting is happening, but why no movements?

Let's 'fess up.

We could do much better here and abroad. Economic and other conditions are eventually going to force us to make difficult decisions. But there is no need letting them slow expansion. How will we respond? I believe that I have the solutions. No, they didn't originate with me. They have been around for ages.

1. Trust God


2. Return to a less complicated, more biblical 1st century model of church planting, including contenting ourselves whith reproducing house churches led by indigenous pastors.

Cost effectiveness. Faith. Yes, I think so. What do you think?

This Week in the Mission Blogosphere

This is another type of post that you will see at the end of most weeks. In these I will attempt to bring you some of the most pertinent topics being discussed in the Mission blogosphere (i.e. - other, usually Evangelical, Mission blogs), filtered through my magical Independent Fundamental Baptist (Biblicist) lens. Hopefully, this will make them useful to us.

So, let's get started.

1. Ralph Winter, missiologist, dies, 84 - Co-founder of US Center for World Mission, International Society for Frontier Missiology, IJFM, etc. Though significant for Evangelical mission, he is little known among IFB's. He made several good contributions to missions. In my opinion, the greatest contribution that could be beneficial to our Mission endeavors was to provide strategic direction. He encouraged a focus on unreached peoples instead of unreached nations (an important distinction). Much more will be said about this concept here in the future.


2. Multi-Site 'Churches' - This debate has gone on for some time, but it seems there has been increased discussion about them as several books have been published in favor of them. 'They' are 'churches' in which different members meet at different times or places, not all together. Several Mission blogs have brought them up over the past weeks. The Southern Baptists have gone for them, as have many other Evangelicals. However, there is growing concern. Some are even coming to the conclusion that Baptists have for 2,000 years: a 'church' can only be a church if it gathers together.


3. Is Everyone a Missionary? - Here's another idea that gets tossed around a lot, often in IFB circles. This week it has hit a few Mission blogs, with the posts and comments usually in the affirmative. While more will be posted here at a later time, I respond in the negative. The goal (that every church member would be mobilized for Mission) is commendable. However, while every true church has been 'sent' into the world for the Mission and every member should be involved in the Mission, not every member has been separated and sent in an Acts 13 sense. Not all are apostles (generic) of the church, being commended unto the grace of God in this special way. So, are all missionaries? Yes . . . and no. More on this later.

There has also been much happening in world news that could affect missions. India's people have dealt another crushing blow to one of the nation's Hindu extremist political parties (BJP) by reelecting a centrist secular government. Could this mean more freedom for Christians and church planting or just heavier persecution from the ousted extremists?

Also, in Sri Lanka, a quarter century war has ended as the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group, surrendured. With tens of thousands of civilians left dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, will the Gospel get a renewed opportunity to penetrate this Buddhist nation?

Pray for these and keep thinking.