YWAMer Bill Hutchison has produced YWAM’s current podcast since early this year. He does a tremendous job of mixing news from the field, needs, and opportunities while keeping things upbeat. It’s really great to listen to– mmmmkif you want to know more about YWAM. I’d love to see more general evangelism training included (if only YWAM knew where to find [...]

SOCIAL MEDIA Some of the most powerful communication tools out there are the social media. Twitter, Facebook, and blogging platforms allow for more than just spreading information; they open up opportunities for interaction with both friends, and strangers. You’d be surprised how few missions agencies make use of social media. YWAM, on the other hand, has a significant presence in [...]

YWAM.ORG When it comes to communication in the missions world, web presence is everything. Monthly newsletters and bi-annual visits aren’t enough anymore. In order to feel connected to your ministry, supporters want to know what’s happening now. And not just the good things, either– they want to know the good, the bad, the mundane (see Twitter). The YWAM website is [...]

This is the second part in my unsolicited communications advice for the missions organization, YWAM. I had intended to begin with ywam.org, but before we evaluate the content of YWAM’s website, I wanted to share some thoughts regarding the group’s name. The name, Youth With A Mission, dates back to the founding of the organization by Loren Cunningham in 1960. [...]

Welcome to the Communications, Misunderstood tour, where I offer unsolicited advice on the communications strategies of different missionary initiatives.  I’d like to start  with an organization with an unquestionable track record of missions sending. This year, Youth With A Mission celebrates 50 years of sending young, mostly untrained, volunteer missionaries around the world. These guys have the reputation of being [...]

A big part of my work with the Upstream Collective is in the area of communication strategy. I strongly believe that how we communicate determines what we communicate. (Some might call this marketing, but for my audience, that wouldn’t be good, um, marketing.) We live in noisy times. Everywhere we go, someone is trying to get our attention and influence [...]

This is my 8th post in a series on developing a new missiology. Previously: A Global Wave Many have taken to using “access” to the gospel as the criteria for missionary engagement. From their perspective, people groups who do not have access to the scriptures, need more of our attention and resources than those who do. Starting with concerns about [...]

This is post #4 in a series on developing a new missiology. In my last post, I summarized the origins of the current popular understanding of missions. People group thinking, as I call it, hasn’t been all bad. But neither has it been all good. This, I suspect, is due in large part to the fact that is isn’t entirely [...]

Is New England the new “American missional frontier?” Vermont pastor Jared Wilson thinks so. He writes about it in a recent post on the Resurgence. Wilson points to statistics showing that the Northeastern U.S. is the least churched region in the country, and that existing churches are not thriving. “New Englanders have little desire for anything to do with Christianity [...]

I meet lots of pastors, church planters, and Christian leaders in my travels. Usually, “Where are you from?” comes only after, “What’s your name?” If you’re planting a church in inner-city Pittsburgh or rural Oklahoma, I’m going to assume that it’s because you feel called to that location. I’m not here to judge, but what other reason could you possibly [...]