Articles

Cross-cultural mission has grabbed the attention of the churches in the Philippines. Local churches, evangelical denominations, and parachurch organizations are working together as never before to plant churches among the country’s unevangelized people.

Our identification transcends material culture and behavioral roles and focuses on the servant’s attitude.

When the Berlin Wall was torn down, and the Cold War evaporated, civilization was said to be poised on the verge of “a new world order,” a phrase coined by President George Bush. Then war broke out in the Persian Gulf and it became apparent that “a new world order” was taking shape in the Middle East.

Finding a balance between staying too long and leaving too early.

Increasing financial paternalism and the accompanying westernization of the gospel are the two most critical issues facing us in world missions today.

We’re hearing more about power encounter these days among non-charismatics. We are more open and less afraid of spiritual power than we used to be.

Like the thousands of Iraqi landmines strewn across the desert, potential booby traps can blow up in the faces of church-planting teams that take to the mission field with high enthusiasm but little knowledge of the territory.

After visiting missionaries on a number of fields over the past few years, I’ve come away dismayed because far too many of them have only a vague idea about what they’re supposed to be doing.

In the first of this two-part series (April, 1991), I described what I call the “double bubble syndrome” that missionary kids grow up in. The first bubble is their idealized perception of their local culture and church. The second is their imported evangelical ghetto and world view.

The Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA, Kenya), which grew out of the pioneering missionary zeal of the Church of Scotland in 1891, will be celebrating its centenary this September. For many years the church depended on financial and personnel assistance from Scotland. In 1956, however, the Kenyans formed their own General Assembly, thereby becoming autonomous.