going where the need is greatest
Here's an article that appears in this month's AFM Connect! To sign up for our newsletter mailing list, sign up here. To read this month's issue in its entirety, click here. “He’s not here. He’s not here. He’s not here.” I was chatting this week with a former Muslim in his mid 20s. He recounted a dream that had changed his life while a college student in the Middle East. “I saw a man rise from the grave and three woman repeating ‘He’s not here’.” … [Read more...]
This past week I have been in London at the Anglican Communion’s outreach committee meeting, also known as the Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative. Our mission, empowered by Archbishop Welby (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), is to encourage evangelism across the 165+ countries of the Anglican Communion. As a core group member, my responsibility is to encourage work in areas of the world where there is very little Christian presence, in “unreached” areas. I left the meeting with … [Read more...]
“You Westerners plan, strategize, and analyze. We Asians do. We act. Then we reflect and consider,” an Asian Bishop told me over coffee a couple years ago. Well, there’s some truth in that. Our Asian brothers and sisters get out there and do evangelism, plant churches, baptize new believers. Just this week I heard of a Bhutanese pastor in the US apologize to a colleague (originally from Iran) that he had so few people ready for baptism when the Bishop comes in a few weeks. “Yes, I … [Read more...]
“Why should I show up at church for an hour on Sunday and an hour on a Wednesday night?” a Muslim leader asked me in a Dallas mosque several years’ ago. In effect, he was asking why a Muslim should trade his experience of community and hospitality for what he perceived to be the Christian alternative. The Muslim leader had a point. Why show up if that’s all Christian community and hospitality really amounts to? Other cultures seem to do a better job than North Americans. Other … [Read more...]
“Mission? Oh, I didn’t know Anglicans were interested in mission,” a Vietnamese house church pastor once told me during a training conference in Thailand. His father had been imprisoned, and he faced threats as leader of an underground movement. “Oh, yes, Anglicans are interested” was my meek reply. But it got me thinking. Why aren’t Anglicans known for mission? Are they more interested in candles and cassocks, prayer books and lectionaries? Or is their legacy more … [Read more...]
"I'm Anglican in my heart". That's what a 250 lb., 6 foot 2, balding Christian leader whispered to me last week. "Guess you've heard that one before", he smiled. He was a self-confessed recovering mega-pastor who now runs a spiritual retreat center on 35 acres. Well, yes, I've heard that line a lot, particularly in non-denominational circles. Burned out by hi-octane mega-ministry, this leader had drunk the Kool-Aid of a Benedictine rule of life (American style). I had one reflection on … [Read more...]
Spielberg’s new movie Lincoln, from the reviews at least, seems to deliver. I know it’s on a list my family and I have to see this Thanksgiving. There’s another reason too. About a year ago, Roger, a guy in the men’s Bible study I attend on Friday mornings in a supermarket cafe here in Richmond, VA started to grow his beard. He plays French horn in the Richmond Symphony orchestra, but moonlighted as an extra when Spielberg came to town to shoot his movie. The guys in our study got … [Read more...]
Last week, I mentioned my conversation with an indigenous Christian leader who has seen nearly 500 churches planted in a staunchly Hindu part of India over the past 20 years. I asked him what role Western Christians can play in planting churches in these areas of the world. He recommended rolling up our sleeves and coming alongside through prayer, materials, training, finance, and infrastructure. (You can read the entire post here). Sounds good, but what if there aren't any indigenous … [Read more...]
"So, do indigenous believers have it all sewn up and don't need foreign Christian help?" That's what was running through my mind as I listened to a Christian leader in India last Saturday. We were in the Hindu belt of North India where religious, political and community leaders don't take too kindly to conversion. Though the constitution guarantees religious freedom, when it comes down to the details, life is messy. "Just remember,” my colleague told me, "when the local police show up … [Read more...]
I have yet to meet a church that didn't support missionaries financially. Though financial assistance is absolutely critical, a missionary can be much more to a local church than a budgetary item. Finding ways for the average person in your pews to come alongside your missionaries will benefit not only those who give, but also the wider church, and it will make your missionary more effective on the field. Neal Pirolo wrote the best book on this subject, Serving as Senders Today: how to … [Read more...]
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