Respect Tradition and Explore Change

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Our God is a creative God. If He created this world in all its wonderful strangeness, why wouldn’t He, for instance, create different kinds of ministries that use different, but not unbiblical methods, for reaching people for Christ?

It really depends on the culture of people you are trying to reach to decide which method to employ. You must, “respect tradition, explore change,” and allow for a ministry to grow, adopting different methods, but staying on the Biblical narrow path in your theology. Adjust to the people you are trying to reach and influence.

The words, “Respect tradition; explore change,” came from an old Nora Roberts murder mystery on a night when distraction became my solace. Like a pastor said at a church I worship at, I also look for good theology in things I enjoy.

In the novel, the character was talking about the wine business. This sentence applies also to ministry work. Social media and mobile technology, while not brand new, thinking of it as a missionary tool is new to the church. People take an “either/or” approach to ministry, and that’s extreme.

I don’t read Nora Roberts at all, except for this one novel. She’s too racy. I like good writing and good story. A couple of cuss words don’t bother me if it goes along with character. This particular novel gets the creative juices going when my writing feels dry. It helps to read almost every genre in order to understand how to tell story, especially to share the Gospel with unbelievers in a language they understand.

What is Diaspora?

“The world has increasingly become ‘borderless’ due to globalization, technological communication, and accelerated migration or diaspora (ie scattering or dispersion of people from their homeland), towards the end of the second millennium. These diasporas have created tremendous opportunities and challenges to evangelize and disciple millions of people who, just a century ago, were living in isolated countries and regions of the world described by missiologists as ‘closed’ and ‘restricted’ to Christian missions. Thus, the 21st century reality of mass movements of people requires the global church, here after referred to as the ‘whole church’, to respond.”

– Lausanne Movement 

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Diaspora is an integral part of my ministry as a missionary. It is a field that I am learning about so I can do online missionary work better as I understand how to build bridges to other cultures. As I learn about it, I will post about it here, too. It is my hope to help you understand how our world is growing smaller and the unreached is quickly becoming more accessible thanks to technology. 

Articles to Read: 

  • Around the globe, 232 million people live as immigrants. The United States alone hosts the largest amount of immigrants compared to other countries, with 45.8 million migrants living here.VIEW FROM THE TOP: REFLECTIONS FROM MISSIO NEXUS
  • The United States has an estimated 360 unreached people groups, making it the country with the third largest number of unreached peoples. Canada has an estimated 180 unreached people groups, making it the country with the fifth largest number of unreached peoples. Given these present realities–in light of Acts 17:26-27–how should we now live? In this episode, I discuss the movement of the peoples and how reaching them in North America can also open doors to reach them in other countries. READ MORE
  • Saudi Arabia women had their first video gaming convention. This is a great opportunity to teach our youth and those who love video games to interact with these women through sharing the Gospel via avatars and chat rooms. READ MORE.
  • Mobile Ministry Forum reported how a private website is offering discipleship materials in Arabic to arabic countries via SD cards or mobile phones. READ MORE.

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