Development: A Term in Need of Transformation
What is development? The question was raised in a letter from several missionary colleagues I had recruited for Leadership Education And Development (LEAD), a program I was starting.
What is development? The question was raised in a letter from several missionary colleagues I had recruited for Leadership Education And Development (LEAD), a program I was starting.
A follow-up to the authors’ Missional Church (1998), a general study of missional congregations, the present work focuses on nine groups that are divided into eight patterns of missional faithfulness in church life.
Paul and Dale Stock were born and grew up in Pakistan. Their parents, Fred and Margie Stock, have been serving in Pakistan for nearly fifty years.
Whether in a post-modern setting, a non-Western urban context or among an unreached people group, music serves as a focal point within Christian churches.
Although Christian mission may seem easily definable, there is a growing divide among evangelicals today regarding the fundamental meaning, role and purpose of this mission.
Consider the following idea from a young person interested in overseas missions: “Maybe there would be merit in removing the categorical labels of ‘short-term’ and ‘long-term’ and instead embracing those who are interested and committed, and giving them tools to help them on whatever journey they are going.”
Over the last twenty years one of the great privileges of my life has been the many opportunities I have had to meet Arab Christians in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine.
“Online outreach is an innovative response to today’s high-tech world. It is possible to evangelize one billion people through this medium.”
—Tetsunao Yamamori, International Director, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
Few topics have more coverage on the Web than HIV/AIDS. A Google search results in nearly ninety million hits. Having been a major world concern for years, AIDS finally seems to be gaining broad attention by evangelical Christians worldwide.
Are We Really about Church Planting? Several quotes caught my attention in Larry Sharp’s article “Are We Really about Church Planting?” (July 2005). Twice he mentions the “end-in-view” church planting model/strategy; once he notes: “If church planting becomes the work of national believers, missionaries don’t have to pass a baton; the baton is in national hands from the beginning.”
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