Free Online Missions Books

These two books are free for reading.

1. Neal Pirolo's Serving as Senders
2. Gary Kusunoski's The 10/40 Window, Africa and Sudan

Pirolo's book is a must read for churches sending missionaries into the field. And few are as knowledgeable about the work, ministry, and politics of the Sudanese Mission Field.

"Go" or "As You Go"?

It's all Greek to me.

 poreuomai

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost

I understand that you can "go", you can "send", or you can disobey. But what about teaching and making disciples, "as you go?" That's a different, but perfectly legitimate way to translate this word. I'm no Greek scholar, but I do know that how Greek is translated into English is sometimes wanting and we need the help of lexicons and commentaries and preacher/brainiacs to help us get the full scope of the word.

In this message (right-click to download and save on your computer), Pastor Jeff confesses that as a former international missionary, the interpretation of this word he would consider is the strict action verb: GO.

Go.

Get.

Get over there and make disciples.

But now that life has thrown him a curve ball or two leaving out the foreign mission field as an option, he's seen the word poreuomai take from a different perspective. "As you go" make disciples happens everywhere Jeff sets his foot. Lately, foreign refugees in his new home town of Phoenix have found themselves in his church being made disciples.

Download this MP3 and give it a listen. Jeff gave this message recently at Calvary Chapel Escondido.

Stuff Christians Like: #390. The 13 things you don't want to hear on a mission trip.

This is pretty good comedy:

1. "Quick, quick, quick, which snakes are the poisonous ones?"
2. "I know, I know, but I've always wanted to see what it was like to drive on the other side of the road and I didn't expect that to happen."
3. "Do you mind carrying this through customs for me?"
4. "Do you know the Swahili for 'I dropped my souvenir machete on my foot?' Because I don't, and I did."
5. "I don't own a tankini."
6. "It's so hot here. I mean I know we're in Africa, in the summer, in the desert, but I didn't expect it to be this hot."
7. "It's so cold here and no I don't want to wear that mission trip coat. I don't like the color. "
8. "Does anyone know how to fix a flat tire/put out an engine fire/completely rebuild a 1987 VW Vanagon?"
9. "Has anyone seen my passport?"
10. "I think it would be a cool sign of Christian brotherhood if we all didn't shave/bath with soap/brush our teeth while we're here."
11. "Sure, bug spray is nice, but the jumping spiders just consider that a condiment, so save it. "
12. "This time it is love. No really, this time it is love."
13. "I think I sprained my ankle."

Stuff Christians Like: #390. The 13 things you don't want to hear on a mission trip.

Shepherd's Staff Missionary Administration

If you're a pastor or church leader, as you consider sending your own to the field, you may be pondering the following questions:

• What is the best way to receive and receipt the funds that come in for them?
• What about the proper way to report the funds that are distributed to them?
• What IRS status should a missionary be placed in… is it 1099 (self employed) or W-2 (employee)?

Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators keeps missionaries in W2 status with the IRS:

• It is by far the least burdensome for the missionary. Trying to pay quarterly self-employment taxes (Social Security and Medicare) required by 1099 status when you are in a foreign country is incredibly difficult.
• W-2 status decreases significantly the possibility of being audited by the IRS.
• Other major, well established missions organizations such as Wycliffe, New Tribes, Mission Aviation Fellowship, Pioneers, Frontiers, and most of the other major missions organizations have their missionaries in employee, or W-2 status.

If you’d like to take the steps necessary to have your missionary become a W-2 employee of your church, we’re here to help. If you recognize that doing so is a little more than you, your staff, or your administrative infrastructure can handle, then Shepherd’s Staff may be a viable option. We currently perform this service for more than 70 Calvary Chapel missionaries on behalf of their senior pastors and home churches.

HT: Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators

Finally...

I have been working on a new web site for Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators for roughly a year, now. A year. I proposed several designs and we settled on this one:

Nothing fancy. Functional, I like to think.

The learning curve on this project was unbelievable for me. In addition to learning how to care for a special needs child, moving to a place, and coping with the legal process we were tossed into with adopting Allie, figuring out how to communicate online through computer code is like, literally, learning a new language.

Now I know why it costs tons of money to have a team of pros do this for you...

Check out the site here: link

Technorati Tags: Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators,missionary agencies

Churches Mobilize to Bring Relief in Jesus Name to Russia/Georgia Conflict

I pulled this off the MNN web site this morning.

As the saber rattling continues, thousands of people are suffering. Slavic Gospel Association says evangelical churches in the region are ready to help.

SGA's Joel Griffith has been in contact with pastors in North Ossetia. They're reporting, "The hostilities between the Georgian and Russian armies have already resulted in several thousand civilians being killed and an estimated 100,000 people having lost their homes. Refugee families from South Ossetia have flooded north across the Russian border."

The refugees are going into the southern Russian regions of Kabardino-Balkaria, Rostov, Stavropol, and Krasnodar. Griffith says, "In all of these regions, we have SGA-sponsored church planters and partner UECB (Union of Evangelical Christians Baptists) churches."

According to Griffith, these churches are being proactive. "All of the UECB churches in North Ossetia are sending people to visit the suffering injured in the area hospitals. They are trying to help the refugees with food and clothing. And you can be sure that they are seizing every opportunity to share the Gospel with them."

Mission Network News

Technorati Tags: Russia,Georgia,conflict,relief,refugees

Missionary Aviators Face Crisis

We're all too familiar with through the roof gas prices. Many of us face tough choices everyday due to the price of gas compared to our disposable income. We ask ourselves, "gas or lunch?" You think I'm kidding?

In everyday's cable news cycle is mention of fuel prices crippling the airlines industry. Do you ever wonder how missions is affected? Here's an enlightening article about Mission Aviation Fellowship:

MAF vice president of resources Dave Fyock says, "$650,000 is the overruns on budget just on fuel alone. In addition to that, the cost of inventories has doubled. So just in fuel increases alone, we're talking a cash outlay of $1.1 million."

In the past few weeks, God's people have responded generously to this crisis. Fyock says, "Our appeal for funding to help with the fuel has brought in to date $286,000, and we are so thankful to God's people for providing that. The truth is, we still need a significant amount more if we are going to make ends meet here at MAF this year."

In an effort to offset these unbudgeted expenses, MAF cut operating costs by 10 percent. Fyock says despite that, it may affect their work into the next fiscal year. "We're working on budgets for the coming year and looking at where we may need to either cut back on hours or possibly even ground for the next year a program or two."

So what can we do? What can you do?

read the rest of the article here: Mission Network News