Articles

When I was a boy, my dream was to one day become an astronaut. I lived and breathed everything NASA—from monitoring the orbit patterns of the first satellites to actually building a full-scale mockup of the Gemini spacecraft and flying multi-day simulated ‘missions’ in my basement.

The primary reason for this article is that it seems to me that something very important about the contextualization of prayer has been lost in the larger debate about appropriateness of certain kinds of contextualization in the Muslim world. 

Just as Gutenberg changed the world forever when the printed word challenged the spoken word, so globalization and the Zuckerberg generation are doing the same in this millennium. One of those changes has been in business as mission (BAM). 

George Muller (1805-1898) is a model of faith for many. Moving from Prussia to Bristol, England, in 1832, Muller ministered as a pastor, started schools and orphanages, and sacrificed unceasingly for others. Many of the sins of his early life were associated with money. After conversion, however, a marked change occurred, and Muller developed several strong convictions about his own use of funds.

Everyone agrees that we must work together to accomplish the task of Matthew 28:19-20 so that we may move closer to the end goal found in Matthew 24:14. Furthermore, we all know God did not give this task solely to missionaries or pastors.

Do teams work? What does it take to develop and maintain a healthy team? Is it worth the effort? Does a healthy team really produce better results than a dysfunctional team?

There is a concern among Canadian and American Chinese churches about the growing disunity within their congregations. For years, these churches were in a state of growth as first-generation Chinese immigrants filled the churches. Over time, however, these churches started to create two new groups.  

Partnering is something we all do, but many of us know little about. Partnering in a cross-cultural setting can get very complicated, particularly when multiple organizations are involved. What can we do to help such partnerships work more friction-free? Through interviewing nearly thirty leaders involved in broad-based mission partnerships, a partnering model evolved that is presented here in story format.

Over the last thirty years, the Western world has experienced a huge influx of immigrants from mainland China and Hong Kong. This diaspora of Chinese immigrants found fertile soil in Western countries, which is reflected in the plethora of churches scattered throughout. These churches are comprised of first, second, and 1.5-generation leaders and congregants.  

How can we analyze the level of dependency in a church or ministry that has support from overseas? Can we monitor the effectiveness of measures that are implemented in order to increase local sustainability over time?