Rites in the Spirit

September 20, 2013 by  
Filed under Featured, Missions, News

9781841270173[1]Rites in the Spirit approaches Pentecostal practices and experiences with an approach often not seen by Pentecostals. Through identifying Pentecostal distinctiveness with rites terminology, the book proves that they have astonishing effect on the believers’ formation. In the light of Albrecht’s work this paper will reflect on: (1) ritual time, space and identity, (2) fundamental structure and modes, (3) positive consequences and (4) characteristic qualities and formational role of Pentecostal practices and experiences.

Ritual Time, Space and Identity
Albrecht explains that Pentecostal experience of spirituality has effect on time as spirituality is affected by the experience itself. He further proposes three time cycles as a characteristic: (1) weekly/annual events, (2) lifetime and (3) the time of the worship service. The worship time itself contains three distinct elements: (1) the worship, (2) the message and (3) the alter service. On the same page, the author writes that in the process of the Pentecostal service momentary/spontaneous encounters with God are often present as a part of the worship.

While time forms the Pentecostal field for ritual, space provides the physical boundaries. Albrecht identifies several space related issues and their prominence for Pentecostal worship. He states that the worship space reveals the attitude of the Pentecostal congregation. He speaks of the sanctuary as a “ritual place” where the Pentecostal services are performed. In this setting, there is space for the congregation and its dynamics (congregational space) and for the leadership (platform). Finally, Albrecht properly notices that there is also an “alter space” where the congregation and leadership come together.

In the time and space of Pentecostal worship, different people assume different roles or identities. Five are pointed out by the text: (1) worshiper, (2) prophet, (3) minister, (4) learner and (5) disciple. (pp. 136-43). The Pentecostal congregation has a main role in the worship service, as the believer’s worship is viewed as a direct offering to God. The mystical element in a Pentecostal worship service is a result of the desire to experience God directly and intimately. The personal experience with God opens the worship to supernatural intervention and the ministry of the Spirit. The very presence of spiritual gifts challenges the individual believer to become a leader, while this spiritual mode is both recognized and evaluated by the congregation.

The goal of these aspects of Pentecostal worship is a personal encounter with God and spiritual transformation of the believer. In this context, the ritual time, space and identity are expressed in Pentecostal worship through preaching, prophetic uttering, healing, miracles, etc. These elements express awareness of a given individual/corporate problem/situation as spontaneous manifestations of supernatural power and leadership challenge not only the traditional leadership forms, but effect social structures as well.

Fundamental Structure and Modes
Albrecht explores the structures and modes of the Pentecostal worship. By structures he understands the elements of the service. He places several of these in the following paradigm: (1) worship and praise, (2) pastoral message and (3) altar/response as transitions occur between them. These structures reveal the role of each believer in the corporate worship. They also reflect on the needs that each individual brings in the corporate setting of the Pentecostal worship.

The modes on the other hand, deal with the emotional aspect of the service. They can be: celebrative, contemplative, officious, penitent, estates, etc. These are the ways through which the believers respond to the structure of the service. In a way, the modes are each believer’s personal expression in the unified corporate setting of the worship service.

The structure and the modes:
(1) reveal the roles of each believer in the process of the service
(2) express human concerns; these are micro rites, like singing and music, through which an expression of the believer’s humanity is given
(3) express social structure; expresses the group’s social life and role in society
(4) reveal theological relations – express theological convictions and beliefs
(5) express relationship to God as a personal experience
(6) express relationship as community – how the body comes together and how the believer acts as a part of the body
(7) accent on relationship to the worlds as a mission approach and an evangelistic attempt

Positive Consequences
(1) Liminality – has to deal with a tripartite structure that marks a significant change in status. The liminal is the moment between the before and after of the event, and is, as it were, outside of the security of these more stable definitions.
(2) Community – deals with relationships between people under liminal conditions.
(3) Reflexivity – a self-conscious examination of the individual believer in the corporate context of Pentecostal worship
(4) Transformation – deals with both the changes taking place in the believer as well as the changes in the congregation as a whole.

Characteristics Qualities and Formational Role
The characteristic qualities within Pentecostal worship have a formational role for the individual believer through:
(1) offering leadership toward the experience of God
(2) creating a community atmosphere in which spirituality, leadership, ministry and mission of the Christian community are clearly envisioned
(3) motivating the believer to both allow and implement formation in the context of the community
(4) practicing spirituality in the context of the Christian community and as a mission to the world

The Missional Church

August 25, 2013 by  
Filed under 365, Featured, Missions, News

Lost and Confused SignpostThe nature of the church is missional, through the fact that its existence is powered by the Great Commission. The book summarizes the culture of today’s American spirituality and its relation to the apostolic church. The main question is, “What would a theology of the church look like that took seriously the fact that North America is now itself a mission field?”

Five Key Insights
1. The missional nature of the church – The place which the church takes in the surrounding world/society defines its nature as missional. How it interacts with the surrounding worlds identifies the church’s response to the needs of individuals and groups of people and results in its success/failure to fulfill its original mission. A valid point was the statement that the witness of the missional church is characterized by its integrity.

2. Recovering missional identity – Recovering the church’s original New Testament identity has been a subject of discussion for many various ages in church history. The volume of works written about it has indeed increased in the latter part of the 20th century. The discussion in the book claims that as truth, self, and society are rediscovered in postmodernism, the churches of North America will recover its missional identity. Thus, the individual search of identity will reflect on the corporate search of the church as a community and as the Body of Christ. Chapter four further claims that the churches missional identity is shaped by the gospel of the reign of God which Jesus preached.

3. The Holy Spirit and the community of the missional churches – The Chapter on the Holy Spirit, although very informative, did not integrate the connection between the Spirit and Missional outreach to a practical paradigm, but it was mostly a theoretic and philosophical proposition.

4. On spiritual leadership – the discussion on spiritual leadership is based on the axiom that leadership is focused on the reign of God. Only then the church assumes its mission. Solving problems and creating unity within the church is reached through the same focus on the reign of God.

5. The secular surroundings – the vision of the church may not align with the secular surrounds. Actually, it may often completely contradict them fulfilling its role as a prophetic utterance. At the same time, social, political and economical factors may oppose the message and the mission of the church, thus creating an atmosphere in which the church grows against the grain.

Mission of God Study Bible Review

July 30, 2013 by  
Filed under Featured, Missions, News

Comments Off on Mission of God Study Bible Review

MissionOfGodSB_post[1]

Several months ago, our team undertook the task of comparing and reviewing a growing number of Study Bibles appearing on the book market recently in what we called a 21st century Revival of Study Bibles. This article is part of our Study Bibles review series as outlined here: https://cupandcross.com/bible-revival/

The Mission of God Study Bible is edited by Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation containing essays and commentaries by over 50 contributors among whom Billy Graham and Jack Hayford. Significant place is given to quotes from Francis Dubose’s 1983 book, God Who Sends. The primary purpose is to introduce a Missional Manifesto to the church of the 21st century. Beside book introductions, essays and cross-reference annotations, it promotes ideas from the Bible as QR Codes, Text Messages and Notes from God using the Holman Christian Standard Bible text as a foundation.

The initial commentary introduces God’s mission in creating the world and the divine plan to reconnect with His creation into a promise of an eternal land. The passages of our usual consideration (Numbers ch.6 and Jeremiah ch.18) are not particularly commented; however, the introduction to Numbers begins with a beautiful analogy of how serious God takes His mission leading the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness. The notes on Jeremiah also contain Glenn Barth’s Dwelling and Working for God in the City.

Although not written by primarily Pentecostal authors, the commentary on Acts includes a very charismatic key to revival through making disciples using: (1) empowerment, (2) education and (3) evolving. This process is described as inclusive and hospitable to all in two articles on the Gentile conversion in Acts 10. The mission of the Christian ministry is enriched by the Gifts of the Spirit annotated personally by Ed Stetzer in 1 Corinthians 14 through the source, search and sovereignty of spirituality. But it is also inseparable from the marketplace as described in connection with the Corinthian church Acts ch.18.

The Pneumatological and ministry related commentaries connect well with the urgency of musicological eschatology starting with the phrase “In the Spirit” (Revelation 4:2). The notes conclude with another article with an urban theme on the Heavenly City. The eschatological mission in Revelation is explained as “Refocusing and Renewing the Church.” An article about missionary to China, Hudson Taylor is placed next to the story of the two witnesses, expressing the eschatological urgency to reach the whole world with the Gospel. This coincides with two commentaries on the Great Commission in Matthew 28, “The Mission of God and the Mission in the Church” and “Go Therefore.”

Overall a great missional tool with over 150 commentary notes and articles begins with the Missional Manifesto and concluding with the “Letters to the Church” from elder statesmen like Billy Graham, Jack Hayford, R. T. Kendall, Erwin Lutzer, Calvin Miller, and R.C. Sproul.

20 Signs of the Last Days (Revisited)

June 10, 2013 by  
Filed under Featured, Missions, News

Comments Off on 20 Signs of the Last Days (Revisited)

signs1. The Spirit poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28)

2. Israel restored as a political state (Deuteronomy 28:64, 30:3 Jeremiah 29:14, 30:3 Isaiah)

3. Universal apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

4. The watering down of the gospel (2 Tim 3:5, Matthew 15:9)

5. False prophets and false Christs (Matthew 24:24)

6. Good will be called evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20)

7. Worldly knowledge will increase (Daniel 12:4)

8. Earthquakes, floods, famines, plagues and diseases such as the world has never seen (Matthew 24 and Luke 21)

9. Peace will be taken from the earth and wars will increase throughout the world (Matthew 24 and Luke 21)

10. Wickedness, murder and crime among men, while the belief in the occult will increase (Matthew 24, Luke 21, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 4:3-4)

11. People will not believe the signs of the Last Days (2 Peter 3:3-4; Matthew 16:1-4)

12. Increase in persecution of the Christians (Matthew 24:9; Mark 13:9)

13. Spread of Nuclear Weapons as predicted by the Bible (Isaiah 24:1; Zechariah 14:12; Matthew 24:21,22)

14. Middle East Tensions and an unified Arab league (Genesis 16:12; Psalm 83; Isaiah 2:3-4)

15. The new tower of Babel (Genesis 10; Isaiah 13:1-11; Jeremiah 50-51 Revelation 18)

16. Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38:1-4; Revelation 20:8)

17. The Revived Roman Empire (Daniel 2:34-45; 7:7-24; Revelation 13:1-2; 17:3-16 )

18. The Anti-Christ (1 John 2:18-19; 4:3; 2 John 7)

19. The Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:18)

20.  The FINAL SIGN: The Gospel will be preached to end of the world (Matthew 24:14, Revelations 14:6-7)

Mission Bulgaria 2005-2012 Completed

June 1, 2013 by  
Filed under Featured, Missions, News

Mission BulgariaWe are currently finalizing our Mission Bulgaria project through a seven-year long commitment, which has touched the lives and ministries of over 250 local churches in the country of Bulgaria. Along with these congregations, our international ministry team has worked with the Bulgarian Diaspora churches in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Spain, Germany and France. Six Bulgarian churches are currently operating in Cyprus and four in the U.K., as there are projections for the registration of other Bulgarian churches as well. It has been a journey worth taking.

In relation to our ministry work in Bulgaria in the period of 2005-2012, among many others we’ve completed these seven milestones:

1. The publication of a complete revision of the Bulgarian Bible

2. Completing a new literal translation of the Bulgarian New Testament from the original Greek including the four gospels, acts, epistles, and the apocalypse

3. Establishment of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association with the special recognition of the US Department of State

4. Foundation of the Masters of Chaplaincy Ministry Program for Eastern Europe

5. Our national X event for youth every summer since 2005, which is accompanied with a Bible Camp for young ministers and a national mobile educational strategy

6. Building a broadcasting network which supports LIVE streaming of services and events for over 20 Bulgarian congregations every week

7. Implemented a long-term church planting proposal for establishing Bulgarian ethnic congregations outside of Bulgaria

After completing 7 years of ministry in Bulgaria, we are publishing a detailed overview of our work and results in a soon to be published monograph called simply Confessions. This new book speaks of the lessons we’ve learned in the ministry and issues of church and politics within the religious life of the country we’ve struggled to resolve. It addresses:

  • The separation of church and politics of false religiosity
  • Entering an organic relationship with God
  • Depending fully in the ministry of the Holy Spirit
  • Renvisioning the reality of the Kingdom
  • Raising a new Pentecostal generation
  • Reliving His glory
  • Leaving a legacy worth remembering

As we are celebrating our 7-year long accomplishment of Mission Bulgaria, we are reminded that in 2013 God is doing a new thing.

On MISSIONS…

September 15, 2012 by  
Filed under Featured, Missions, News

Missions Test 1: Mission, Method & Message (2012)

Missions Test 2: Means, Motive & Opportunity (2012)

Missions Test 3: Missionary Testament (2012)

MissionSHIFT (Part 1): Paradoxes in Missions (2011)

MissionSHIFT (Part 2): Free Will Missions (2011)

MissionSHIFT (Part 3): WebMissions – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (2011)

M3: Missions for the Third Millennium – A Public Position (2010)

8 Simple Rules for Doing Missions in the Spirit (2009)

Church of God Eastern Europe Missions: Leadership, Economics and Culture (2009)

Read also: Why I decided to publish Pentecostal Primitivism?

Revival Harvest Campaign 2012: Revival Must Go On…

September 1, 2012 by  
Filed under Featured, Missions, News

Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of our annual Revival Harvest Campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to reach lost souls and to encourage the local congregations through prayer and ministry. We appreciate the response from all churches who have participated in our Revival Harvest Campaign in previous years.

We will be opening the 2012 Campaign at a location that has been in our prayers over a decade now and our visit has been long anticipated. We have received similar invitations from other churches and we are praying that the Lord opens a door for us to minister there again in due time.

Since Bulgaria became a member of the European Union five years ago in 2007, hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians have emigrated in search for a better life. We’ve been ministering with these communities and helping them organize local Bulgarian churches. We ask that you join us in prayer for the Bulgarian congregations marked on the map below, as we are prayerfully working on a strategic program for reaching Bulgarian emigrants and establishing new churches abroad.

In midst of crises, confusion runs rampage, insecurity floods thoughts and spiritual warfare is greater than ever. And there exists doubt in well established faith that all is well. However, it is our prayer that this oppressive spirit be broken, that lies be reveled and that hope returns with great power from above. It is with this prayer that we receive this vision for revival to break the bondage of the mind. We continue to believe, regardless of how circumstances may appear or distractions which arise, that revival must go on . . .

Also read:

Our Ministry in the Gipsy Ghetto of Yambol

August 30, 2012 by  
Filed under Featured, Missions, News


1990 We began serving in the Yambol area along with the local Pentecostal churches in the early 1990s after the Fall of the Berlin Wall

1992-93 Our team participated in a number of revival campaigns in the Gipsy Ghettos of Yambol, Sliven and Stara Zagora

1996 Along with Dr. Miroslav Atanasov of Sofia, we invested into the purchase of a building that is used for the meetings of the local Church of God led by its first pastor, who had mixed Gipsy-Turkish roots, brother Mitko Mohamed

2000 This was a turning point for the local congregation and many other minority groups in the region, as we led a Church of God campaign in several of the neighboring villages and regions stretching our outreach all the way to the Black Sea and the border between Bulgaria and Turkey

2001-04 In the years that followed, we completed a number of evangelistic campaigns in the Strandja Sakar region in South Eastern Bulgaria populated with predominantly Bulgarian speaking Turkish and Pomak people groups

2005 We renewed holding services in the Gipsy Ghetto of Yambol where by that time there were a dozen active Pentecostal congregations

2007 We helped restore the local United Church of God congregation after it had burnt down in a fire.

2008-09 After collaborating with local social services workers, our team devised an ethical guideline proposal for working with abused and abandoned children while consulting on project “Care for Orphans,” which worked with gypsy children of the area Ghettos

2010-11 We held services with many local youth groups, preaching the Gospel and praying for the people after showing the film Jesus for Children, after which dozens of people, both children and adults, accepted Christ as their personal savior confessing their sins and joining the local churches

2012 We have written extensively on the subject of Forming a Roma Gipsy Evangelical Identity in Bulgaria and our book on the subject is coming out for publication in the near future

MISSIONS TEST 3: Missionary Testament

August 1, 2012 by  
Filed under 365, Featured, Missions, News

missions-test1
Dony K. Donev, Cup & Cross Ministries International

The following World Missions series were sparked by a partial sign with the words “Missions Check,” we saw in Atlanta on our way to a mission’s trip to Europe just a weeks after the great tornado of 2011. We’ve observed the events that followed for over a year now, thus launching these series with a purpose. After serving in various ministry positions around the globe as a part of the Church of God for over 20 years, we have built a solid platform as a response to current problems and issues on the mission filed. In the past seven years alone, our ministry team has survived several consecutive denominational splits, and coming on the other side still preaching Jesus Christ and Him risen, this is what we have to state…

Check the Facts
Let’s face it – the simple truth is that as Pentecostals, we like to exaggerate. We love it when the numbers speak for themselves. The examples are so many that anywhere we look we find more numbers than actual people. The pastoral monthly reports must be there to ensure our way of life. Some even put a pen to the missionary’s statistics in order to calculate that every $33 or $55 or $77 given to missions returns as one saved human soul.

But do these numbers tell our story right? Hardly so! For who can count the tears shed in one’s intercessory prayer? And who can count the words of one’s heart cry toward God? Jesus Himself considered 99 as equal to the one lost, and the poor widow’s offering as much as all given by the rich. Seems appropriate to suggest that these are the real facts that count in the Kingdom of Heaven and they are the facts we should consider even in this earthly life.

Check the People
When you get down and personal with the issue, the problem is not in the numbers, but in the people who create them. Because before they are seen by all around us, facts are created first and foremost in the hearts of people and there lays the weakest link of any group of people. Wrong attitudes like jealousy, gossip, unconstructive criticism, disloyalty to leadership and negation of goals will ultimately affect the performance and can even destroy the group.

Even secular corporate companies for years have searched for people with a certain level of emotional intelligence (EI), defined as the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. It is said that EI has a direct effect on maximum performance and building relationships with personality. But working in the spiritual world, the control of emotion is not sufficient. What the church needs is people with spiritual intelligence (SI); and not merely a corporate based combination of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ), but a truly Pentecostal, in-the-Spirit formed form of spiritual inelegance identified with spiritual knowledge, professional training and adequate experience in the ministry.

Check Yourself
The truth of the matter is that many see neither the people nor the facts, but are out for number one. This self-indulging political agenda has brought us to a point in the history of our church where we are not who we say we are anymore. The contrasts in our identity are so many, that five Pentecostal generations later, we stand at the verge of unprecedented identity crises for which very few have realistic answers or solutions.

1. Check your overall motives for missions and ministry. Thirty days of solitude fasting always helps clear the mind and the body from unnecessary baggage.

2. If there is sin, it is you at fault, not someone else. Make sure it is dealt with in a timely and proper fashion or it will destroy you within.

3. Forgive without forgetting. This means to keep on forgiving every time you remember the fault of the other person. If your brother has offended you, it is you that needs to find forgiveness (Mt. 19)

4. If you see one fallen by the road, it is you that must take care of him/her. You may be the only solution for the problems nearest to you.

5. Take responsibility in owning your feelings. Bitterness is a strong weapon in the hands of the enemy, but even negative emotions are a powerful tool in the hand of the Lord.

6. Express yourself. Start a blog and keep posting at least twice weekly. Then sum it all in a book and publish it. You will be surprised how many followers will find you.

7. Start preaching out of your comfortable zone, without a pulpit or set time. Broadcast it on uStream, publish it on YouTube. Whatever it takes you, get out there and just preach Jesus.

8. Appoint a morning hour for prayer and keep it just for you and God regardless of what may be going on around you.

9. Read all the books you were supposed to read in seminary. If you missed seminary, now may be a good time to submit your application.

10. Find other ways to grow. Not just as a professional or an expert, but as your own person. Be a self worth being.

11. Whatever you do, do not stay in the dry, out in the desert. There is a whole new promised land waiting for you. Surpass the midlife urges to bottle up your emotions and just keep on walking.

12. Remember: the place where you are going is worth all the effort.

Related articles:

Missions Test 1: Mission, Method & Message (2012)

Missions Test 2: Means, Motive & Opportunity (2012)

MissionSHIFT (Part 1): Paradoxes in Missions (2011)

MissionSHIFT (Part 2): Free Will Missions (2011)

MissionSHIFT (Part 3): WebMissions – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (2011)

M3: Missions for the Third Millennium – A Public Position (2010)

8 Simple Rules for Doing Missions in the Spirit (2009)

Church of God Eastern Europe Missions: Leadership, Economics and Culture (2009)

Read also: Why I decided to publish Pentecostal Primitivism?

MISSIONS TEST 2: Means, Motive & Opportunity

July 30, 2012 by  
Filed under 365, Featured, Missions, News

Dony K. Donev, Cup & Cross Ministries International

The following World Missions series were sparked by a partial sign with the words “Missions Check,” we saw in Atlanta on our way to a mission’s trip to Europe just a weeks after the great tornado of 2011. We’ve observed the events that followed for over a year now, thus launching these series with a purpose. After serving in various ministry positions around the globe as a part of the Church of God for over 20 years, we have built a solid platform as a response to current problems and issues on the mission filed. In the past seven years alone, our ministry team has survived several consecutive denominational splits, and coming on the other side still preaching Jesus Christ and Him risen, this is what we have to state…

missions-test1

In times of hardships, when every church, family and person are tested and tried, missions must remain the front line of our church, the harbor for the lost and the heartbeat of God within us. In fact, missions are the only spiritual process that keeps a church alive during crises. For without a heartbeat after the Heart of God, a church is simply dead and dying…

But how do we know if our church is indeed missional and not mission-minded in name only? How do we know if we pass the MISSIONS TEST? Here are several guidelines:

(1) MEANS: Follow the Money
They did in the book of Acts right when the first mission wave in the early church was gaining speed. Literally! And while money is not the foundation of missions, merely its means to accomplish the plan of God, it sure helps to have it when you are in the mission field (speaking of one’s own experience).

The transparent report of church’s finances show a lot about the church itself. If the larger flow of finances is pointed inward, being used for church and family only, your church is not missional. To put it simple, the moment you vote to decrease money for missions, you are decreasing the mission’s outreach of your church – how far your church reaches with its mission. Yes, overspending must be always eliminated and smart stewardship of any missional budget is essential, but they should never alter the flow of finances to missions toward the internal needs of the church; because the rerouting back to the intended recipient will be virtually impossible. For such shift inevitably affects not just numbers and members, but the very ecclesial identity redefining the church from a missional extravert to a cognitive introvert congregation.

(2) MOTIVE: Follow the Structure
The missional structure of a church is initially invoked by an internal, organic, process of motivation produced by our very identity as a people of God. Prominent psychologists today tell us that the internal motivation is that pure, primitive, productive force which drives us from within. And it is no different in missions, where a fine line between calling and career is drawn. For once Missio Dei becomes a professional occupation for a primary payout, the point of missions has already been lost. And if the point of existence for a church structure is not the mission to the world, the church is probably not fit for the Kingdom. So Jesus told the rich young ruler.

A lesson learned from the drying banks of Rio Grande. We can trim a river, direct it and guide it to serve our needs, to produce power for electricity, to provide watering for farming, but it will soon loose its God given source of internal power to flow and will dry out. Altering the natural structure of missions if and when needed, must be done with the understanding that it may ultimately dry it out from within. Therefore, changes in the structure and praxis of missions should only be driven by a return to the first, primary model invoked by the search of God’s heart for lost men and under the direct leadership of the Holy Spirit.

(3) OPPROTUNITY: Follow the Spirit
Spiritual power comes from one source only – prayer in the Spirit. Spiritual power for missions must be prayed for, waited for, expected and exercised, anticipated and acted upon. And while individual prayer affects both the person and the church, nothing moves the Heavens like the continuous, corporate prayer of a congregation. This is what we learn from the day of Pentecost. And based on this, is the true test for mission readiness: The last time you had a church wide meeting, with the sole purpose to pray for the missionaries you’ve sent, is the moment your church ceased being missional. For being missional is “not an act, but a habit” – not a price, but a process. And not a single goal, but one constant going and striving toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

As a partner in the Great Commission, our church must carry a message, not merely a political involvement or social concern, but of a spiritual message, both in origin and in practice. For if you preach what you’ve not prayed through, you preach nothing but yourself. And if you have no message to share with the world, your mission endeavor is but a religious vacation to a foreign land. Therefore, our prayer for missions is foremost one constant call to the Spirit for new opportunities in the harvest. For it is ultimately God, who creates the opportunity of Missio Dei as His severing plan for saving the world. And if a church is to follow the call to be missional, it must abide in a relationship with God – the visionary, initiator and empowerer of missions. (Mission Ready, 2014)

Related articles:

Missions Test 1: Mission, Method & Message (2012)

MISSIONS TEST 3: Missionary Testament (2012)

MissionSHIFT (Part 1): Paradoxes in Missions (2011)

MissionSHIFT (Part 2): Free Will Missions (2011)

MissionSHIFT (Part 3): WebMissions – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (2011)

M3: Missions for the Third Millennium – A Public Position (2010)

8 Simple Rules for Doing Missions in the Spirit (2009)

Church of God Eastern Europe Missions: Leadership, Economics and Culture (2009)

Read also: Why I decided to publish Pentecostal Primitivism?

« Previous PageNext Page »

[SimpleYearlyArchive]