Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission

I believe that when we begin to fully understand the Bible’s missiological and instrumental perspectives with regard to the migrant and stranger, we may possibly gain a better grasp of, and live more fully in, the missionary vision expressed in 1 Peter 2. If the church of Jesus Christ truly saw itself as a pilgrim community whose land and nation are not of this earth, then the Christian church would begin to understand that it is itself a community of migrants—ambassadors, yes (2 Cor 5)—but even so, migrants. This perspective is not a purely managerial or activist viewpoint. Rather this presentation points us to the being, the essential nature of the People of God as a migrant community, pilgrims who know that this world is not their own. They are a migrant community of followers of Jesus on their way to a new reality, seeking the Kingdom of God

Practice of Listening

Listening. We are always listening. Is this true? Or are we just hearing? Often times hearing and listening are confused but they are not the same thing. Posting about listening and how we can improve it from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world. http://inallthings.org/the-practice-of-listenin

Role of Communication and Listening in Leadership

In our world today, leadership is important in many organizations. Leaders create the opportunity to develop relationships based on listening. Listening is a multidimensional construct that requires further integration within leadership studies. This study aimed to seek the validity of focusing on listening within the study of leadership. The research promotes the understanding of the verbal and nonverbal characteristics of the listening process that have the greatest ability to influence a person’s leadership potential, as well as examining what leadership characteristics can influence a person’s listening. Understanding these characteristics presents evidence that listening deserves the recognition to be studied as an important communication skill. Specifically, the focus was to send a survey to an equal number of educational institutions and businesses to create a balance of education and implementation within a workforce. The survey was sent to these organizations and then a snowball sampling occurred. Total completed surveys included a response rate of 97.4 percent, and respondents indicated behavioral characteristics, as well as nonverbal responses to be important in a listening setting. Responses were compared to Kouzes and Posner’s Ten Commitments of Leadership and Greenleaf’s model of Servant-Leadership. Further results of this study, indicated that leadership settings incorporate certain verbal and nonverbal behaviors. This study supported that leadership is about behavior, rather than personality or character. Also provided are suggestions for further studies regarding these topics

Vital Sign in Healthcare: Are You Missing It?

The ability to listen well, and to be deeply understood, enhances every aspect of our lives. The healthcare field is no different. This Work in Progress seeks to establish an ongoing dialogue

Bridges of God: The Mission Legacy of Donald Anderson McGavran

This short essay is about Donald McGavran and his ground-breaking book, Bridges of God, that became the cornerstone of Church Growth theory and the foundation of what is now called the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Missiological thinking and missionary practice was transformed by the energy, vitality, insight, and stubborn tenacity of Donald McGavran. Whether they agreed with McGavran or not, after the publication of The Bridges of God, mission professors, mission executives, and mission practitioners could no longer do business as usual, nor their usual business

A Response to Dr. Litfin

A response to Duane Litfin\u27s (1995) Understanding Your Critics: An Outsider’s Analysis of a Core Criticism of the Church Growth Movement (in this issue)

Bridges of God: The Mission Legacy of Donald Anderson McGavran

This short essay is about Donald McGavran and his ground-breaking book, Bridges of God, that became the cornerstone of Church Growth theory and the foundation of what is now called the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Missiological thinking and missionary practice was transformed by the energy, vitality, insight, and stubborn tenacity of Donald McGavran. Whether they agreed with McGavran or not, after the publication of The Bridges of God, mission professors, mission executives, and mission practitioners could no longer do business as usual, nor their usual business

Perspectives on the Church and Church Growth Theory

Because we will be talking about the church and its nature during this conference, I thought it might be good for us to be reminded of some basic characteristics of the church and the various ways the church has seen itself. At the risk of oversimplification, I would like to briefly survey ten broad perspectives on the Church which one may derive from the Church’s history and relate them to Church Growth theory. The ten perspectives mentioned in this paper are in no way meant to be exhaustive of the multiple ways one may view the Church. I do not see these ten as mutually-exclusive. Neither am I assuming that in each age the church has exhibited only one of these perspectives, though at certain times one or two may have been stronger than the others. The ten perspectives are meant only to illustrate the breadth of viewpoints available to us in seeking to describe the mystery that is the Church: called forth by Jesus Christ, created by the Holy Spirit, sustained by the power of God, involving human persons and structures, shaped by its contexts, and incarnated in specific times and places

Why Multiply Healthy Churches?

This article examines biblical motivations to multiply new, healthy churches. Such motivations emerge from the following five biblical truths: a) God the Father seeks and finds the lost, b) The love of Christ obligates us, c) God sent the Holy Spirit for all human beings, d) The local congregation is the primary locus of the rule of the King, and e) Multiplying churches is for the glory of God. Our loving and compassionate triune God desires that all women and men become disciples of Jesus Christ, active participants in a local Christian church, and committed agents of the transformation of their context