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1716 Entries found for Keyword(s) "bart erhman"
Small Groups That Have the DNA of a Disciple-Making Movement
…A Group Exercise David Watson put an image up on the screen. “I want you to take a look at this image.” After a few seconds, he blanked the screen. “Now, describe the image.” People called out various things they remembered. David allowed them to continue, just until they started…
Reaching the Nations in Your Community
…From Gujarati Hindus residing in Jersey City, to Lao Buddhists of Portland, Oregon, to Kurds in Nashville, Tennessee—God is bringing the nations into U.S. communities large and small, and the Mission America Coalition (MAC) is responding. Following last year’s annual conference in Orlando, MAC leaders understood a strategic focus was…
Affinity Blocs
…In this issue of Mission Frontiers we continue a new series of articles, providing updates on least-reached People Clusters. Building on the work of Patrick Johnstone and Joshua Project, we estimate that more than 80% of the world’s unreached peoples are found in 117 least-reached People Clusters, with these 117…
From the Editor
…We are a planet on the move. More people are moving to more places, more rapidly than at any time in human history. With rapid transportation available to increasing numbers of people, the unreached peoples of the world many times are moving in next door to us. Will the Church…
Simple, Common-Sense Solutions to World Evangelization
…Do tough problems or seemingly insurmountable obstacles always require complex or difficult solutions? Not always. Sometimes the best solutions to tough problems including those in world evangelization are simple and straightforward, but not often obvious at first. What is common sense today often became so because someone was willing to…
A Time For Everything
…I went to see Talgat mainly because that is what friends do in Central Asia—spend time together. He is not a ministry project, but a friend whose company I enjoy. Nevertheless, I also wanted to see him because I knew Talgat was struggling with problems in his ministry, and I…
Affinity Blocs
…In this issue of Mission Frontiers we inaugurate a new series of articles, providing updates on least-reached People Clusters. Building on the work of Patrick Johnstone and Joshua Project, we estimate that more than 80% of the world’s unreached peoples are found in 117 least-reached People Clusters, with these 117…
Unsuspecting People as Kingdom Agents
…I met Vladimir in October 2010 at a men’s spiritual retreat in a central European country. Vladimir is a university professor who came to saving faith through Jesus Christ some 20 years ago with a group of young people shortly after the fall of Communism. Vladimir revealed that he has struggled…
North American Pioneer Missionaries Before 1812
…This year’s mission bicentennial draws attention to the first North American missionaries who were sent out by an organized mission society. That sending precipitated the sending of hundreds of thousands of North American missionaries who followed after them right up until today. However, it needs to be remembered that there…
Further Reflections
…My wife and I have been here at the USCWM for almost 30 years. An amazing part of being on staff is meeting people from all over the world. Many of them are involved in God’s purposes to extend his fame to the least-reached peoples. Earlier this month I was…
Resourcing the Missional Family
…The North American family is faced with many challenges. Children move away from parents, not only geographically, but morally and spiritually as well. The typical church deals with this by further fragmenting family life. In many cases, it manages families within its membership by offering help along age and gender…
The Essential Role of the Family in World Evangelization
…These are exciting times for followers of Jesus Christ! The Holy Spirit is moving all over the world bringing people to repentance and faith in our risen and reigning Savior. The Spirit is working in places of abundance and in places of persecution. We rejoice when we hear the news…
Multigenerational Family Communities
…“Houston, we have a problem...” That phrase came to mind when I was teaching a European group of young adults in Amsterdam in 2002 on planting house churches. The problem was that the word “church” was just a total turn-off to this young generation. So I suggested that we look…
“In Praise of Short-term Missions”
…Well, I’m pretty sure the title for this column has never before appeared in the pages of MF. While troubles remain in the theory and practice of short-term missions (STMs), this issue shows that there is much to be thankful for in this incredible movement. It is always easier to…
Short-Term Trips, Bible Storying and Church-Planting
…I (Doug) had trekked to a handful of countries on short-term mission trips in the past. These trips focused on various humanitarian efforts or maybe the occasional Vacation Bible School, but never had I thought about using short-term mission trips to do church-planting. Church-planting was for really gifted people, for…
Learning from the Mission Field How to Plant Churches
…Short-term missions are legendary for their pitfalls and problems. We have spoken numerous times in MF about our concerns and the damage that many short-term mission efforts have done. Poorly prepared teams of people going on poorly-planned and -coordinated expeditions at exorbitant cost to sensitive mission fields have often been…
Community-Based Orphan Care
…How do you take care of 15 million orphans and children at risk? This is Africa’s challenge, and it’s not just a problem for governments, NGOs and Oprah Winfrey. Most of Africa’s orphans are from Christian communities, confronting the global Church with one of the greatest humanitarian crises it has…
Discipling Africa Through Higher Education
…The continent of Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent on Earth, after Asia, including 22.3% of the world’s total land area.1, 2 In terms of Africa’s natural resources, it is the richest continent in the world, having 50 percent of the world’s gold, most of the…
Africa in Crisis
…Somewhere in the world, in the last week of October, a baby was born who tipped the human population over the 7 billion mark. Statistically there is a high probability this baby is an African. Statistics also tell us this African baby will need to fight for survival, facing the…
Africa
…Africa is a huge mess. It is riddled with wars, six million dead in the Congo alone, famines, AIDS, poverty, corruption and more. Yet the gospel has made tremendous gains in the 20th Century. How is it that so many have put their faith in Christ and yet the situation…