Missionaries as Needy Patrons
By Tamie Davis and Moyra Dale | Patronage relationships are common in many cultures. Western missionaries in these environments are often viewed as patrons by default. This can be an uncomfortable role. However, when we understand how reciprocity works in these contexts, we can participate in ways that strengthen local relationships.
Leading with Beauty
By Grant Klinefelter | Do we know the story of what God is doing today? Often, we know how God has worked in the past and we have hope for what God will do in the future. But do we really know what God is doing here and now in the present? Across America, giving to missions is declining. And across the West, missionary attrition is rising. I believe one reason for this is that we have not done well telling stories of what God is doing around the world today.
Loren Cunningham’s Legacy: Transforming Missions
By Charis Jackson and Lynn Green | To say Loren Cunningham reshaped missions is not an overstatement. It’s a fact. From the vision of waves turning into young people on every shore, to the last catalytic call to see every native tongue have an oral translation of the Bible, Loren was a man who loved the Lord and inspired peoples from every nation to join in on the adventure of God.
Polycentric Missions Should Include the Church
By Ellen Livingood, Matthew Philip, and Scott White | Immense global changes are affecting every aspect of missions. Missions models are getting flatter. And local churches are increasingly engaging in aspects of missions previously reserved only for mission agencies or large NGOs. Polycentric alliances offer a way for a wide range of mission participants, including churches, to work together to address missional challenges.
The Nigerian Church and Global Missions
By Adeoluwa Felix Olanrewaju | The Nigerian church has been engaged in cross-border and cross-cultural missions for more than 150 years. Since then, it has played an important and growing part of the global missions movement. And Nigerians are eager to play a bigger role in collaboration with global partners.
Building Bridges Between Local Churches and New Neighbors
By Sara Miller* | Church leaders and organizations are grappling with the changing dynamics of the American church. However, the fields remain – calling for tilling, sowing, and harvesting. And the nations are here at our doorstep. Global workers who have already lived and served cross-culturally are uniquely equipped to help churches engage these nations and serve cross-culturally here in the US.
A Framework for a New Era of Missions
By Craig Greenfield | When every geopolitical nation has a gospel presence, what is the role of an outsider in helping the global Church to continue to grow? How do outsiders, especially from the West, remain faithful to God’s call to love their global neighbors and use wisdom to know how best to serve?
Training for Polycentric Mission
By Mark Hedinger and Kate Wiseman | Polycentric mission brings the joy of multiplied expansion, and at the same time, the challenge of how to bring together the wealth of diverse cultural perspectives on missions theory and practice.
Mission Doesn’t Have a Reverse Gear
By Harvey Kwiyani | Reverse mission is often used to describe Majority World mission movements, particularly ones to Western countries. But this way of describing mission carries baggage that encourages certain mission movements to be seen as more or less than others.
Missionary Sending: Keeping Christ at the Centre
By Jon Fuller | What does it mean to send and be sent? Understanding sending as deeply rooted in the intimacy of an abiding relationship with Christ, (reflecting his relationship with his Father) has reminded me how often I forget that it is God who sends, not me.