Preaching Towards Mission: Which World View? Every preacher does it. No exceptions, we all present a world view either through what we say or, more often, through what we do not say. Here, the concept of world view being considered is not about some of those fundamental or basic structures of culture, such as shame/honour, […]
An International Church Vision for The Practice of Unity: A Missional Imperative. International Churches (ICs) are communities in which the vision of every tribe, nationality, language and peoples is happening already. ICs therefore are microcosms of the future. ICs are living witnesses to the world, and to the rest of the body of Christ, that […]
Challenging the Tribalism of Your IC Leadership: A Vision for the Practice of Unity. Which Christian tribe do you represent? Is your International Church (IC) leadership embracing of the diversity of evangelical life and practice or do you incline more to being an IC that better suits those of a particular denomination, or politics,or nationality, […]
Rest/Counsel/Care Resources for International Church Leaders “This is a sampling of retreat/counselling/vacation/guesthouse venues/services available for retreat/restoration/vacation for cross-cultural workers and people in ministry. I hope you find it helpful.” Compiled by Melanie Driedger (Missional International Church Network http://micn.org/). This document can also be found on the MICN website at http://micn.org/r-r-resources-ic-leaders/ Counseling/Coaching Melanie Driedger, RN MN […]
The International Church, the Over-zealous, and the Unity of the Cross. They come from everywhere,bringing with them every variety of authentic Christian faith imaginable. From the exuberant to the solemn, from free-wheeling discipleship to the very prescriptive, our international churches (ICs) embrace them all. Or do they? In the preceding article,[1] I wrote some strong […]
Tribalism in the International Church: With Four Leadership Priorities for Unity and Mission. Tribalism is a little too common across the evangelical church (and beyond) bringing particular challenges for leaders of International Churches and Fellowships (ICs). Many, both leaders and church members, have loyalties based on allegiance to particular positions on the issues of the […]
The 21st Century is marked by mass migration. Massive population movements of the last century have radically challenged our study and practice of “mission fields.” Where the church once rallied to go out into “the regions beyond,” Christian missions is currently required to respond and adapt to “missions around.” In this multi-authored, inter-disciplinary volume, leading […]
Unprecedented migration is a global reality of the twenty-first century. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) dubbed 2015 “The Year of the Migrant.” In the last decade, research on and response to migration has become a priority for nations and communities. More recently, mission organizations, denominations, and congregations have rallied to locally address migrants. Almost […]
Thriving not Surviving – Leadership Principles to help enable sustainable effective International Church Ministry: reflections from the Netherlands With the church often seen as being in decline in European countries, ICs have a vital missional role in expressing the kingdom of God among internationals, as well as those native to any particular country. Many within IC […]
A few years ago I visited King of Kings Community in Jerusalem (www.kkcj.org) during a trip to meet with international churches in Israel and Lebanon. At that church I met with Missions Pastor named Phil from New Zealand. This guy had some amazing stories to tell how God had used him in some real divine […]