Mission, Ministry, & Contemporary Culture

In the Muslim world, creationism is on the rise - The Boston Globe

Three weeks ago, with much fanfare, a team of scientists unveiled the fossil skeleton of Ardi, a 4-foot-tall female primate who lived and died 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. According to her discoverers, Ardi - short for Ardipithecus ramidus, her species - is our oldest known ancestor. She predated Lucy, the fossilized Australopithecus afarensis that previously had claimed the title, by 1.2 million years. READ MORE at www.boston.com

Missionary Focus Archive - Essentials

Setting the Captives Free

It was the last place anyone expected a revival to begin. Travel to what was once one of the toughest prisons in America and see how God is using Robert Toney, a Southern Baptist chaplain, to help turn convicts into converts.

via www.essentials.tv

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Thousands still trapped by quake

Thousands still trapped by quake

The moments after a sports hall roof collapsed at karate practice in Padang

Almost 3,000 people are still trapped under rubble following Wednesday's powerful earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, officials say.

via news.bbc.co.uk

Manila's Christians Use Facebook for Disaster Reports | Liveblog | Christianity Today

October 1, 2009 9:07PM

Manila's Christians Use Facebook for Disaster Reports

via blog.christianitytoday.com

Relief Groups Respond to Typhoon Ondoy | Liveblog | Christianity Today

Worldwide, Christian groups intiiate emergency aid to Metro Manila

Timothy C. Morgan

Today, relief groups, many of them Christian, are raising funds for emergency relief work in the aftermath of the deadly typhoon in Metro Manila, Philippines.

Here is a heart-breaking You Tube video:

Operation Blessing reports:

Disaster relief specialists Operation Blessing International (OBI) are responding to Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana), which dumped 13.5 inches of rainfall --an entire month's worth-- in just six hours, leaving the city 80 percent flooded. News reports confirm over 100 deaths so far and many people are stranded on rooftops throughout Manila as roadways are submerged. An estimated 300,000 residents are displaced. OBI has an office in Manila and has worked extensively in the Philippines for over a decade. Under the direction of Dr. Kim April C. Pascual, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Operation Blessing International Philippines, the charity has earned the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) of the Year by the Philippines government for 4 out of the last 6 years.

via blog.christianitytoday.com

Baptist Press - Post-tsunami aid heads to Amn. Samoa - News with a Christian Perspective

Posted on Sep 30, 2009 | by Mickey Noah

PAGO, PAGO, American Samoa (BP)--A Baptist-sponsored Seafarers' Center has been lost in the destruction by a deadly tsunami that struck several islands in the South Pacific on Tuesday, Sept. 29.

"Our Seafarers' Center is a total loss," reported Veryl Henderson, executive director of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention in Honolulu.

A North American Mission Board missionary directs the center in Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa and lives there his wife and three children. But Joeli Sovea, a NAMB Mission Service Corps missionary, his wife Tupe and their three children, Joel-Samuel, JoHannah and Joreignna, are now without a home.

via www.bpnews.net

NextReformation » how the church turned inward..

how the church turned inward..

Posted in ekklesia, community, mission at 5:30 am by len

Shonnie Scott, one of the board members of Mustard Seed Associates, is writing a dissertation on how the ministry of the church has turned in on itself. Instead of providing for the needs of our neighbors (what she calls Kingdom Work), we have chosen to form structures and ministries that serve only those who come inside the building (Church Work). This article is from the section on the earliest house churches, developed around the time of Acts and common throughout the second and third centuries. It talks primarily about how the early church’s structure supported the Kingdom Work of Jesus.

via nextreformation.com

NextReformation » Being temple: church-shaped mission from commodity to community

Being temple: church-shaped mission from commodity to community

Posted in theology, mission at 8:18 am by len

Bruce Hamill writes in Stimulus, “The false separation between worship and mission doesn’t just mean that it’s possible to do both worship and politics, but even more strongly, that it is impossible to do either of these things properly in isolation from the other.”

via nextreformation.com

NextReformation » sabbath and essential rhythms..

sabbath and essential rhythms..

Posted in formation, prayer, pilgrimage at 5:30 am by len

“Busyness, of course, is not peculiar to the pastoral life; it is endemic to our culture.. We need a strategy that takes into account [the] two sets of demands that seem to cancel each other out.. The first set of demands is that we respond with compassionate attentiveness to the demands of the people around us.. demands that refuse to stay within the confines of regular hours and always exceed our capacity to meet them..

via nextreformation.com

NextReformation » Bibles, Liturgy, Formation..

HOLY BIBLE: MOSAIC is a beautiful newly published Bible, unlike any Bible you’ve ever seen…

“It has gorgeous, inspiring artwork from the 3rd to 21st centuries from every continent across the globe. It contains poignant, and thought-provoking writings from the 1st to 21st centuries from every continent, and branch of the Church around the world.

“Both artwork and writings follow the Church calendar throughout the year starting with Advent (Sunday, November 29, 2009).

via nextreformation.com