Our calling extends beyond our local communities. Let's discuss how as churches we can engage with our global mission.
Resonate
Fronse
Richard
Daniel
Bev
Once a month I attend a prayer meeting to pray for Muslims in my city of Hamilton, Ontario. There are about 30,000 Muslims in my city. Close to me, in Toronto and Dearborn, Michigan are many more Muslims. As we pray I am struck by the faithfulness of one woman who hosts our meeting.
I live in the country with the highest murder rate in the world.“Where’s that?” you ask. “Iraq? Afghanistan? Mexico?”
We typically think of short-term missions as something that happens when people from North America cross cultures by traveling to an unfamiliar setting here or abroad. Recently, missionaries Mike and Megan Ribbens, who normally live in Abuja, Nigeria, crossed cultures by visiting their partner churches.
Debriefing a mission trip is just as important (if not more so) than orientation. Here is a recent Banner article that suggests 10 questions.
This webinar will briefly review the concepts from When Helping Hurts and dive right into the 5 principles for helping without hurting, which are included in the new edition of the book.
Honduras gets a LOT of short-term missions (STM) teams. I had the opportunity to hear from the community itself how they felt about the North Americans coming to serve them.
Churches are bombed, governments are overthrown, terrorism rises, murders and kidnappings increase. Did you know that CRCNA has a crisis management team that monitors and evaluates these sorts of situations to help keep missionaries and volunteers safe?
This letter comes from the Bible Society of Egypt. Hopefully you will find it helpful in understanding the increasingly complicated situation in Egypt and in knowing what to pray for all Egyptians.
When I first chose to go on a January class term to Uganda, I was a bit apprehensive. Not because I was nervous to fly across the ocean, face the mosquitoes, or ride down the (sometimes very) rough roads, but because I had no idea what to expect. I had taken enough development classes to know the disaster stories...
This past week a neighborhood teenager put a message on Twitter that said, “You know you’re living in a ghetto when the church vans come in for spring break.”
Is short-term missions (STM) a great means of discipleship or a huge distraction from the actual work of missions? One thing is sure: STM has become a huge phenomenon. One analyst counted about 500 short-term missionaries in 1965 compared to 1,500,000 in a recent year.
How do improved seeds, funding from the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation, and work from a World Renew staff member help a local church to grow?
Back in November of 2010, this blog appeared in slightly different format. It must have touched a nerve because it was followed by 50 comments, one of the largest numbers of comments ever on the Network. I'm repeating it now because we are looking at creating a webinar on this theme.
In 1998, newly married, my wife, Nelly, and I attended a small French- speaking church, Eglise St. Marc, and became friends with the many missionaries studying French to minister in French- speaking West Africa. Although we had no intentions of becoming cross-cultural missionaries, we were young, idealistic and ...
From June 7-9, young adults from across North America gathered to worship God and learn from one another on how to engage 18-30 year olds in the Christian Reformed Church. These young adults, leaders within their congregations, are passionate about their faith and concerned about declining membership...
It is often said that CRWM is the “word” ministry of the Christian Reformed Church and that World Renew is the “deed” ministry. However, anyone in ministry knows that you cannot have one without the other. Any word ministry must also have action; and deed ministry must be accompanied by word. . .
When Helping Hurts has become a classic book for those who work with the poor or in missions. It's been the subject of a blog post and a webinar here on the Network. The one question that keeps coming up, both at the conferences and when I talk with those who have read the book, is "What do we do now?"
How can we be good neighbors to the Muslims who live next door? Should we be afraid of Islam? Do Muslims worship the same God we do? How can I share my faith with my Muslim co-worker? These are the kinds of questions a lot of us in North America are asking. Salaam Project is here to help!
“What do you think you can possibly do to encourage the people in El Potrero? You do not know the language, the culture, the environment! You are from a middle class suburb trying to help some poor farmers in a small community in Honduras! How can you, of all people, encourage them?”
About two and a half years ago I was asked to fill a one-year role as guide for the Global Mission page of the Network. After a quarter of a decade, it seems time to hand over the reins to someone new who has a great deal to share and represents a different piece of the comprehensive ministry of Christ's Church.
Three weeks ago my older brother was killed when the light plane he was piloting crashed. His daughter gave a beautiful tribute to her dad, who was a retired fire chief. In her view, he was the "king of the life-saving heroes." Later in the service, their pastor reminded us that the true King of the Life-Saving Heroes is the Lord Jesus.
Christian Reformed World Missions office staff are working with hundreds of volunteers. One of the issues we have faced recently is getting background checks for volunteers to check for any history of criminal activity or abuse. Do you think this is a good practice, or not?
Back in 1920 when Rev. John De Korne traveled to China as one of the first group of Christian Reformed missionaries to China, he could hardly have imagined that his great-granddaughter would travel there 90 years later to adopt a 13-year-old Chinese orphan.
Is it time for God’s church in North America to wake up to a new reality? A large unreached population is present right in our midst, right now - our Muslim neighbors. At our upcoming Salaam Project Conference on April 28 from 8am – 12pm at Calvin CRC, Grand Rapids, MI, we are going to discuss why this is the time and the place for God’s church in North America to
The popularity of the Kony 2012 video has brought worldwide attention to post-conflict Northern Uganda. You might not know that World Renew has been working in Uganda since 1982; Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) began partnering there in 2006. Partners Worldwide is also working there to help those affected by the LRA.