When it comes to helping victims of abuse, the church is often seen to be lacking in rigorous responses. There is a tendency to downplay the abuser’s actions and focus on the survivor’s response. This can lead to survivors seeking refuge in places outside the church, such as psychologists’ offices. I decided to trust the church.
A recent mission conference in South Korea highlighted the issue of suicide prevention as a missiological concern amid a suicide rate more than twice the average among OECD countries. A missiologist professor argued that suicide should no longer be regarded solely as an individualized issue but something that affects society as a whole. And he believes that the Christian perspective of building God’s kingdom could help overcome the prevalent "culture of death".
Dr Paul Windsor is a global leader who loves serving others and looking for ways to resource them with new ideas. In this instance he gifts us with an autobiographical reflection of almost six decades of his life and some of the key ways he has learned to live and understand life and ministry through each decade.
The largest share of migrants worldwide are Christians, the country of origin for the highest number of Christian migrants is Mexico (11.3 Million or 9%), and Christian migrants' destination country of choice is the USA followed by Germany and Russia, according to latest Pew Research Center data, published on August 19. The findings reinforce the importance of migration and diaspora ministry, an issue that will likely get attention at the upcoming Lausanne Congress in Seoul next month.
Try to imagine these three situations: a workers' conference where all the speakers are business leaders, a television debate on racism where everyone—including the moderator—is white, and a video series on women where all the presenters are men. Do they not now seem inappropriate, unreal, archaic, more typical of the middle of the last century than of this one?
Missio Dei is a formal theological term, latin for "God’s mission". The term means just what is says: mission belongs to God. God defines the mission’s purposes and strategies, means and methods, timing and pacing. The mission scope is all encompassing—multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-resourced. Our participation in God's mission requires that we keep our priorities straight, and Abraham shows us how.
A survey by Lifeway Research shows that 81 percent of American Protestants believe Christian movies are effective evangelism and discipleship tools. The survey also showed that 68 percent of respondents had watched a Christian faith movie in the last year.
Part of Regnum’s ‘Global Voices: Latin America’ series, it’s a tightly argued series of essays that examine the interplay between the long-accepted concept of ‘worldview’ and transformation. Its theological perspectives point out that ‘Jesus always lived on the edge of the empire,’ ‘The gospel concerns nothing less than all things (Col. 1/16-20) and the church’s mission concerns nothing less than all things.’
According to the World Health Organisation, about 70 percent of people in the world suffer potentially traumatic events in their lives. This offers an opening for the Church to come alongside those suffering, share the gospel and witness healing, according to SIM (Serving in Mission), a mission organization that has responded by setting up a trauma healing ministry.
In the context of the Roman empire, making disciples of all nations was never about sending out well-funded missionaries from Rome, but the work of migrant peasant migrant workers, traders, sea-farers, and others, moving from one part of the empire to another (and beyond). Is this model from the past also the future of Christian missions?
The story of God is a grand biblical story of how God has revealed himself to humankind and how he has redeemed us from fear and death and has planned a future for the whole cosmos. It’s a monumental story of love and brokenness, fear and hope, truth and lies, and the unending resolve of our loving God and his intention to save all that he has created. And we need to tell it better.
The 4th Global Member Care Network conference held in Maanzoni, 35 kilometers outside of Nairobi, Kenya, gathered over 350 participants including 80 speakers from around the world to deliberate and learn how missionaries and their families can be supported to do effective and impactful work in the mission field.
