It’s the impassioned plea of every missionary and minister: “I just want my people to be like the noble Bereans.” We read the description of those noble believers in Acts 17:11, and we beseech the Lord to give us a congregation full of people who receive our messages with eagerness and search the Scriptures to make … Read More
Mission Intelligence
Contextualization and Evangelical Confusion
Contextualization and Christian Ecumenism Contextualization studies have suffered from the lack of treatment on the role of Scripture in gospel witness and theological teaching overseas since they gained popularity in the 1980s. Bibliological questions of essential interest to evangelicals (the doctrines of revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, authority, sufficiency, and Canon) are largely unexplored and missing … Read More
Missionary Communication Blunders
Several years ago, I was serving as an elder in an English-speaking international church in the Netherlands which was without a pastor at the time. After praying and looking through about 200 resumes, the search committee settled on inviting a mature, experienced American pastor to candidate for the position. He, of course, preached in our … Read More
Good Soldiers of Christ
On June 12, 1944, just six days after D-Day in World War II, a young lieutenant named Richard Winters led his men to the outskirts of Carentan. As the officer in charge of Easy Company, of the 101st Airborne, he was tasked to clear the large French town of its German defenders. It would be … Read More
Together for the Bible
Together for the Gospel? Yes and Amen! What about the Bible? Faith comes by hearing the gospel, right (Rom. 10)? So we plant churches. But how do we plant churches without the Word of God? We can start by evangelizing, which is oral proclamation of the gospel, but as people come to faith and yearn … Read More
Abraham: A Bible Expat
We refer to individuals living in other lands as expats (expatriots). They reside as aliens in countries where they are not citizens. Actually, the Bible repeatedly speaks of God’s people as resident aliens. Abraham is perhaps the most familiar Bible expat. We ought to contemplate the implications of Abraham’s alien status in regard to how … Read More
A New Blog: Missions Intelligence for Reaching the Nations
Together with the launch of our new website we introduce Missions Intelligence, a new blog designed to engage hearts and minds with the greatest commission ever given—the church-wide effort to make disciples of every nation. The two-fold aim is biblical fidelity and straightforward practice. We want pastors and lay persons alike to be informed, encouraged, … Read More
