Travel the Road

I was flipping through stations on tv earlier this evening and ran across a documentary. It was about these young men who spent seven days in Somalia to make a food drop. I found it really interesting. It was made in a similar format as the Invisible Children documentary. I thought maybe it was a branch off of some sort. At the end of the program, during the credits, a website appeared on the screen so I looked it up. What I found surprised me, and kind of excited me just the same. I'm hoping you will find it interesting too!

Check out: Travel the Road

Fastest Growing Religion

"In a number of respects, Islam actually isgrowing faster than Christianity. Islam's growth rate of 2.15 percent annually does exceed Christianity's rate of 1.45 percent. It is worth pointing out, however, that 96 percent of the growth of Islam is attributable to biological growthchildren born into Muslim families. Islam is flourishing in parts of the world where population growth is high. Christianity, increasingly decentralized, has its traditional base in parts of the world where population growth is quite slow or has come to a standstill. Thus, the overall trends do show Islam growing faster than Christianity."

by Woodberry and Shubin-- "Why I Chose Jesus"

Missions Frontiers--March 2001(read more here)

Former Soviet Nations Closing

I read recently, in one of the International Mission Board’s (IMB) newsletters, that those nations that were once soviet are slowly becoming closed once more to the Gospel. Of course, for a nation to close to the Gospel entirely is impossible. God can get in even if missionaries can’t. In the 1980s, Brother Andrew proved this by smuggling Bibles into the “closed” Soviet nations. The time maybe coming yet again for such exploits.

The article mentioned the thought that perhaps God had opened up those countries so that He could rebuild them and renew their resources and spirits. That may well be. Recently, after the Soviet reopened, Bibles belonging to families within the Russian nations were found in warehouses. These Bibles were distributed back into the hands of the people. In retrospect, the Soviets may well say they did themselves no justice by keeping instead of burning these Bibles but by the same token God knew that they would be needed. He opened up the region and allowed the Word of God to go forth unhindered.

It has been a decade and a half since the fall of the Soviet. The church in Russia is growing. Leadership training has been the focus in many churches. New Seminaries have been established and are sending out many pastors, teachers, and missionaries into the surrounding regions and across the world and the government is noticing. Slowly but surely, attention is turning back to religious freedom and questions are being raised as to its benefits.

In Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced a few days ago the intention to start tightening down on religious freedoms. Though Kazakhstan has no national religion, that does not mean that this country should become a religious dumping ground for all, he said. While I can understand the logic behind this, I believe that this is only beginning. I heard from a Ukrainian brother a week ago that things there are not looking good either. He fears it may lead to a war. And the accounts are growing.

How much longer will these nations remain open? There is no way to tell but we must remember that all is under God’s sovereign control and will occur according to His plan and timing. Now is not the time for fear but rather the time to take advantage of the freedoms that remain. Please join me in remembering our brothers and sisters abroad in prayer, and remember also to pray for the leadership of these nations.

A Change Clarified

In keeping with the previous topic of change, it has been brought to my attention that a clarification may be in order. While the intentions may seem the best and the heart may for a moment seem to feel something for the condition of this lost and fallen world, the most serious issue at hand is not one that anyone can, on thier own strength, attend to. The real need before us is a need for Jesus and the changes that are required in hearts of Christians and the world can only be accomplished by His Holy Spirit.

Often Christians miss the mark by demanding change from each other without first examining the center of the matter: the heart. How can demands be made for change apart from a work of the Holy Spirit? God must work by His Spirit to soften our own hearts so that we can in love attend the needs of the world. Jesus reminds us of this in John 15:5 and the apostle Paul himself said, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” (Col 1:28) Any efforts on our own are in vain. We must all be working in the strength that He provides!

Finally, if our change is merely focused on providing temporal aid what good is it? Sure, food for those starving is a very necessary thing but feeding the body only to forget the soul must not be done! As Christians, our mission must be to meet the physical needs as a means of connecting with a person so as to care for their soul. Every man, woman, and child needs Jesus. They need a Saviour to rescue them and how can we, who have this hope, neglect to share with the world our Saviour? That is the most pressing issue.

What is an Incarnational Missionary?

An incarnational missionary is essentially a missionary who “undertake(s) the difficult task of learning to know and identify with the culture.” (Hiebert 91) They endeavor to understand the culture and deal with the theological problems of the culture. Their role is primarily to present the gospel so that it is understood in a meaningful, relevant way to the people of the culture. Then they establish churches.

The study of cultural anthropology and cross-cultural communication are important. Studying cultural anthropology enables the missionary to better understand what he sees and hears and experiences in the new culture. It helps to act as a filter to help him learn and process the culture. Cross-cultural communication is helpful to allowing true communication of ideas and concepts to the culture. It sometimes requires the changing of words or phrases or ideas so that the meaning is understood properly. For instance, if a culture doesn't have sheep the phrase, “Lamb of God” might not be understood. So, in effort to maintain the concept, the missionary might change the expression to “Goat of God.”

So, essentially the study of anthropology aids the incarnational missionary in the learning of cultural relevance and cross-cultural communication enables truer communication between the peoples. Which is the aim of the incarnational missionary – to minister effectively to the people of a different culture than his own.

This is an essay answer to a question from a test earlier this year. I just ran across it today and thought that it would be beneficial to post because we are all, as Christians, in a way missionaries and dare I say we should be incarnational missionaries at different points in our interaction with the world, be it in this American culture or another culture.