Resources for Mission Strategy

There are lots of resources available that can help missionaries as they develop strategy. I fully recognize that many people on our continent have limited, if any, access to the internet. However, there are also many who have acceptable (not great) access and others who have occasional access. Here are some resources that I've found during the last week.

Bible Study: On 12-Apr-10, I posted a guest article by Kevin Howard, Is the Missionary a Competent Theologian?. The best theology comes from regular study of God's Word. Dr. Bob Utley, retired professor of hermeneutics, East Texas Baptist University has developed a free Online Bible commentary to provide help in in-depth study of the Word. In addition to the online resources, Dr. Utley's ministry provides a free Verse-By-Verse Computer Bible Study Library CD-ROM and Bonus DVD [that] contains over 8,000 pages of verse-by-verse exegetical Old Testament and New Testament commentaries as well as OT and NT Surveys. Also included are Bible commentaries in Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, French, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Korean, Oromo, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Tagalog, Telegu, Thadou, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese. The Bonus DVD contains more than 850 minutes of video and audio files from Dr. Bob's latest "You Can Understand the Bible" TM Bible Interpretation Seminar." (quote from web site).

• Free Bible Commentary

Technology and Missions: I've uploaded a couple of posts about the use of technology in missions in Sub-Saharan Africa. While there are a number of places where the use of internet technology would make no sense, there are places where web-enabled cell phones and computers are used by enough people that I think missionaries should consider whether mobile technology could be a part of their strategy. I'm constantly finding resources related to using the internet for evangelism and discipleship. Here are a few that I've run across this week:

• Lausanne World Pulse, June 2010 -- Technology: Is It Changing Missions?
• Facebook and Missions
• book review of Netcasters: Using the Internet to Make Fishers of Men
• publisher's page about Netcasters: Using the Internet to Make Fishers of Men
• Netcasters Facebook page

Demographic and Research Data: In two previous posts -- Google Public Data on Sub-Saharan Africa and Statistics Gone Visual -- I talked about some resources for demographic data that could be useful in developing strategy for missions. Brigada-Today is an excellent place to find resources for missions. They publish their weekly newsletter online as well as via e-mail. The current issue, 16-May-10, lists some additional resources for demographic data:

• What’s Your Favorite Geo-Political Science stats page?

Books: Resource for free books on missions -- downloadable PDF books. Titles include: A Call for Cooperation and Partnership (emergence of new mission agencies and initiatives "in the old mission sending countries and especially in the new sending countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia"); Becoming an Intentionally Intercultural Church ("...helping congregations transition from a fundamentally monocultural membership...to one that intentionally seeks to reach...."); Starting and Strengthening National Mission Movements ("Report of research conducted by the Missions Commission Task Force on National Missions Movements"); Women as Risk-Takers for God (stories of female leaders who "serve as role models for women everywhere who long to understand and use their spiritual gifts", including Kay Arthur, Kay Coles James, Eva Burrows, Judy Mbugua).

• World Evangelical Alliance -- Missions Books and Manuals

I'm sure there are almost innumerable resources available, both online and off-line.

• What resources have you found to be helpful in developing your strategy for people of Sub-Saharan Africa?

For the Kingdom,

Bob A

And I Wasn't Even Pregnant -- Keeping Your Dignity When Learning a New Language...

... Well, actually, I don't think you really can (keep your dignity).

A couple of days ago, I was visiting with a friend who is recouping from a long illness. He was watching golf on TV. So, we were talking about our experiences playing golf. Me? I think in the 2-3 years that I dabbled with golf, my best score was 117 -- a great I.Q score, but not a threat to Tiger Woods, even on his worst day. Still, I've never lost a golf ball -- not in the rough; not in the water. On the other hand, the reason I've never lost a golf ball or never scored better than 117 is almost certainly because I never risked enough.

Language learning is the same -- if you haven't made some really funny, dignity-destroying goofs, you probably haven't risked enough. Years ago, I had gone to visit a pastor/friend in Nairobi. He wasn't in so I was talking to his secretary. Though Kenyan, she said that her Swahili was atrocious, so we talked in English. That was early enough in my M career that I couldn't readily switch back and forth between the 2 languages. After talking to her for a while, I left. The compound guard wasn't in sight, so I opened the gate and headed back toward the car. About that time, the guard came around the corner. To assure him that he didn't need to hurry, I told him, in Swahili, "Thanks, but I opened it for myself." At least, that's what I intended to say. As I drove out the gate, I was laughing at myself because I had used the wrong verb form and ended up using an idiom that meant "I have given birth." (... and I wasn't even pregnant!) I'm sure he later regaled his friends with the story of the mzungu man who said he had given birth.

I think the only way you can keep your dignity while learning a new language is to be sure that you maintain your sense of humour and that you don't take yourself too seriously (be dead serious about the work, though). I read a New Tribes blog a couple of weeks ago and thought about all of the missionaries, national and expatriate who are struggling to learn language. I wanted to give you a bit of encouragement and some advice from an old-timer -- put yourself on the edge with language learning, take risks, make the mistakes, laugh with your African friends at your mistakes -- you will learn the language that way. Here's the blog I read:

When the Deer Buzz, Run!

• What funny and embarrassing mistakes have you made in learning language?

For the Kingdom,
Bob A

Missions Miscellany

In the last week, I've come across some interesting web sites that relate to missions. They're not really connected in any way; they don't directly relate to missions in Sub-Saharan Africa; they're a mixed bag -- but I thought they might be stimulating and might give someone some ideas. The format below is my comments first, then information about the site or blog, then the links:

Not an advertisement, but several years ago we were looking for flights to Kenya for our children for Christmas. When we and some other travel agents had looked, we could only find seats at something like $3,000.00 each. The folks at Ministry Travel were able to secure seats for us for about $1300.00 each. I was impressed. I just found out that they do a blog designed to help those who are taking short term mission trips. These three posts, especially the third one, seemed especially helpful:

MINISTRY TRAVEL - Our mission is to provide the best service and prices to our missionary and ministry clients.

• The Mission Team Leader's Field Notebook
• Recruiting and Organizing Translators for Mission Projects
• Speaking Through Translators During Mission Trips

Loosen your tie and your belt, lean back in your office chair (or your recliner), and suspend your critical judgement -- humour ahead -- prepare to laugh. Jon Acuff writes religious satire and there's very little that's out-of-bounds for him. Jon wants to get us to examine what we do and sometimes what we believe so that we can get back to true Christianity. This post made me wonder what people really think about all the stuff that we, as long term missionaries, gift them with.

STUFF CHRISTIANS LIKE - Stuff Christians Like is a blog about the funny things we Christians do. And what they just might reveal about our faith...Does the stuff we like, ever get in the way of the God we love? Satire in the tradition of The Wittenburg Door

• Mission Trip Souvenirs (or the sandals that prove you've been to Africa)

What a great way to state this concept: The Church is God's mission strategy. That's why the organization under which I work has such a strong focus on church planting. In this interview conducted by Ed Stetzer (Research, Lifeway Christian Resources), Steve Timmis presents an interesting possibility for church planting in a post-Christian society -- intentionally planting a group of believers in the midst of communities of non-believers to live out church among them. What would happen if, for instance, a group of Christian Kenyan families were to decide to resettle in the Kibera slum?

RESURGENCE - a reformed, complementarian, missional movement that trains missional leaders to serve the Church to transform cultures for Christ. What should Americans learn from the post-Christian culture of western Europe? In this short interview, Steve Timmis talks about how the church is God's mission strategy and why Americans should learn from Europe.

• We Are God's Mission Strategy

The last post is a blog about the potential for technology to separate us from the people we're called and sent to serve. While this is written from the perspective of short term mission teams, I think the danger is at least as great for long term personnel. It's easy to spend so much time on the computer (writing, planning, surfing, Skyping, Tweeting, Facebooking, etc.) that we don't ever disconnect from our home culture and bond with our adopted culture -- we're here but not really.

A VOICE IN ASIA'S HIGHLANDS - Brother Eugene apparently works with Adventures in Missions, though I couldn't find an "About" page or profile on his blog.

• Technology's Negative Impact on Missions

Enough miscellaneous postings for today.

• Which of these seems most relevant to your work in Sub-Saharan Africa? Why?

For the Kingdom,
Bob A

Using the "New Roman Road" to Build Prayer Support

Earlier this week, I wrote a post on using technology to reach Africa, Technology: The New "Roman Road". That post dealt with the primary missionary task of sharing the gospel with non-disciples of Christ.





However, there is another use of the new Roman Road that, while perhaps more obvious, can be extremely useful. That is the use of technology to mobilize prayer support and develop partners in the developed world.

I've seen many examples of this but one of the most unique is a virtual prayer walk for the Maasai of Tanzania done by Dan on Google Maps: Maasai Virtual Prayer Walk. (I should acknowledge that unique might be an indicator of my own lack of exposure. This is the first time I've seen a virtual prayer walk done this way.)




Pondering:

• I wonder if it would be possible to post video clips in the description of one of the markers instead of a still picture?
• Hmmm, now that I'm thinking, I wonder how difficult it would be to do a Virtual Prayer Flight on Google Earth -- flying from one place to another, adding a video/audio clip to each marker?

Your Response:

• How do you use technology to advocate for your people group and mobilize partners?
• Feel free to include links in your comment.

For the Kingdom,

Bob A

Technology: The New "Roman Road"

This is a follow-up to an earlier post, Strategic Use of Telecommunications Technology in Africa. Because of our growing proclivity toward technology, I do think we western missionaries need to be careful that we don't jump to technological methods without careful thought. However, as Troy Carl points out in this insightful article, The 21st Century Roman Road: How Technology Is Changing Missions, technology needs to be one of the tools in our missiology toolbox, but it needs to be appropriate technology used appropriately:

Too often, when we consider incorporating technology into our mission work, we make the decision based on our own frame of reference...The pace and saturation of technological advances pose unprecedented challenges to the mission community. How can we stay relevant and effective in a digital world, especially one characterized by high levels of poverty and reliance upon oral communication styles?

• How **can** we stay relevant and effective in our missions work in a digital Africa?

For the Kingdom,
Bob A

Statistics Gone Visual

Another interesting and unique source of demographic statistics -- Gapminder:

The information is available from other sources but the Gapminder folks present it in interesting ways. Check out some of these and then explore the site for graphs, maps, downloadable charts and presentations, reports on a wide variety of information. Some of the maps include timelines so that you can see changes over a period of time -- the map on adult HIV infections shows changes from 1980-2007. Caution: some of these will take a long time to load over slow internet connections -- even in Nairobi, some are slow:

• Percentage of adult population (15-49 years) infected with HIV (Swaziland has the highest percentage at 26%; Nigeria has only 3.1% but that represents 2.63 million adults who are HIV-positive)
• Blog on trends in HIV/AIDS
• Wealth and Health of Nations -- correlates life expectancy at birth with income per person (GDP per capita) -- Sub-Saharan African peoples dominate both the low life expectancy and the low per capita GDP.
• Data downloads (430 different documents)

Gapminder even has a downloadable desktop application that runs on any platform under Adobe Air. They say (I have downloaded it but not installed it) that you can access the data whether you're online or off.

Other statistical information that might be of interest:

• UNAIDS 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic (most recent data)
• UNAIDS graphic of global HIV infection (2007 data)

How could you use information like this in your work?

For the Kingdom,

Bob A

Missions DNA

Sunday morning was a great experience. We attended the early service at Parklands Baptist Church in Nairobi, not knowing that they were beginning a 5-Sunday emphasis on the various departments (i.e., ministries) of the church and were focusing on missions on Sunday. Simon Mwangi Ndegwa is the Associate Pastor of Parklands BC and, while I may be ignorant due to the limits of my experience, I do not know another African who has a heart for the nations like Ndegwa.

The service began as usual with music led by the praise team. Then, there was a flag procession. The flag bearers circled the platform and the map of Africa that is inset into the platform. Then the church prayed for the nations. Simon was scheduled to preach on missions. Frankly, he never really got to his sermon (as printed in their order of worship). But, he did preach -- he challenged the church that they had a responsibility to pray for and go to the nations. At the end of his sermon, Simon prayed for the nations again -- even that Somalia would become a missionary-sending country!

Then, the fun began. Simon's altar call was for those who would respond to God's call to the nations. He even asked for a show of hands of those who did not already have passports -- only 2 people raised their hands and he told them to get the application paperwork and to get it done! How could they say they were ready to go to the nations if they didn't at least have a passport? The early service is, relatively speaking, lightly attended but a large number from the congregation responded by going forward. It was a stirring service.

I walked away from the service both thrilled and burdened. Thrilled at the emphasis on missions and on the response; burdened wondering what the church would do as next steps. This church has a great reputation for missions having already adopted at least 2 unreached people groups in Kenya and supporting national missionaries to those people. But, how will they expand their reach to the nations outside of the borders of Kenya? Who will train them?

• Is the Great Commission really for African believers?
• What are you doing to equip national believers to go to the nations?

For the Kingdom,

Bob A

(worship pictures courtesy of Bert Yates; Bert's blog on work with legacy churches in Kenya, Yates-IMB-Kenya)