More often than not, “partnering in missions,” means small churches give what little money they think they can afford to a larger church or a missions sending agency that will handle mobilization, screening, indoctrination, training, sending, and maintenance of missionaries on the field. This is not “partnering,” it’s outsourcing.
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PREVIOUSLY: Impractical Spaces
Lest you think these last few posts reflected only the thoughts of a lone anonymous cynic, I’d like to introduce you to some of the many other intentionally impractical leaders among us:
When he started the Evergreen Community in Portland, Oregon, Bob Hyatt had a vision- he knew what he wanted his church to [...]
Tags: Counterintuitive, Impractical
Most of the people who call themselves “missionaries” will tell you about their passion for the unreached people group they’re working with. Algerian Berbers. The Dong people of Nigeria. The Bondo Poroja of India. People you’ve never heard of. Dark-skinned people in funny hats, living in places you couldn’t find on a map. The missionaries have [...]
Tags: Taxonomy, Unreached People Groups
A brand never changed anyone’s life. At least not for the better. In fact, we are a society of people who have been let down, frustrated, and ripped of by brands. Microsoft has frustrated our daily lives, McDonald’s has made us unhealthy, Starbucks has charged us ungodly amounts for coffee, and American Airlines loses our [...]
Tags: Brand, Missions, organizations
Fear is a powerful thing. It can cause us to do some very irrational things. Of all the threats that we face on a daily basis, we put more time, money, and effort into protecting ourselves from things that we find very scary, whether they are likely to happen to us or not. In Chapter [...]
Many of our partners come to Western Europe to work alongside us and are overwhelmed by the sin that they see practiced and even glorified in these cultures. Entire segments of the population find their identity in the sin that characterizes their lives. For many of our co-workers, it can be overwhelming to see such [...]
Unless writing a lot makes one a "writer," Ernest is a former missionary. After more than six years in Western Europe, he moved to Portland, where he drinks too much coffee and over-analyzes human behavior. For more about Ernest, visit the About page where you can read a long-time reader's interview with him. Or, if you don't mind waiting a very, very long time, send him an email.associations attrition Books change Church church planting Coke contextualization Counterintuitive denominations entering culture ethics Evolution Favors Fear Finances Giving gospel Hobby Humanitarian trips Impractical Insuffiecient resources Interesting Person Kingdom learning leaving Megachurch Missiology missional Missions Missions Strategy Mom-and-Pop Money Papers Person of Peace Pragmatism reintroduction Rules small churches threat Training UpStream worldview
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