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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All around you there are groups of people who are influencing and being influenced. You can (and should) be part of the discussion, but you’re too busy doing something that nobody else cares about. In your little “Christian” subculture bubble, you have no influence and few friends. Here are some tips to help you become [...]
Tags: , Books, Hobby, Interesting Person
I hate when people give advice about evangelism. “What you need to do,” they start, “is buy a five-pound bag of individually-wrapped Lifesavers candy. Then, print about five hundred business cards with the plan of salvation on the back. Staple a lifesaver to each of the business cards, and ask people if they’d like a [...]
Backyard Bible Clubs. Youth Camp. Sports ministries. If you do any of these as evangelistic outreach, I’ve got a question for you: are you taking advantage of children?
Yeah, I know- you came to faith through VBS when you were six years old. If it “worked” for you, it can’t be that bad, right?
Let’s just say, [...]
A couple of weeks ago, David Rogers tagged me with a game that asked me to list some books I’ve read recently. It sort of made the rounds through the blogosphere (again), and many of my fellow bloggers had played along. There are categories, such as “One book that changed your life” or ” One [...]
Despite the fact that people are always telling me that history is important, I’ve never really been a history buff. In fact, I learned nearly everything I know about history by watching Hollywood movies. I didn’t even know about the Apollo 13 thing until, well, Apollo 13. Forest Gump taught me about three Presidents, Elvis [...]
In my last post, I wrote about the resolution to “Develop an exit strategy from public schools” that is being proposed to the Southern Baptist Convention. Since we’re trying to put together an effective entrance strategy here in Western Europe (doing the opposite of what the resolution calls for), I’ve decided to put myself in [...]
Every year, Southern Baptists from across the United States get together in an annual Convention. This is a time for them to discuss denominational direction, elect leaders, and share what God is doing. One key part of the meeting is the proposal of resolutions. These are actions that members would like the denomination as a [...]
I recently attended a conference workshop where the speaker asked a lot of questions. She was talking about postmodernism (yeah, we still have to have the “Postmodernism” talk every time we get together), and sharing from her experience with a postmodern European guy. She presented their interaction as a case study, to illustrate the [...]
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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