Tag Archives: missions

Global Missions Amid Global Crisis

Global Missions Amid Global Crisis

Jeff Straub Few things have so universally affected the missionary movement like the current COVID-19 pandemic. As the world’s economy has ground to a halt, so too has the advance of the gospel been significantly curtailed. With “shelter-in-place” orders stretching from California to Canada, Romania to Rwanda, the world is facing the pandemic with vigorous… Continue Reading

Missionaries and Culture

Missionaries and Culture

This entry is part 33 of 63 in the series Ten Mangled Words You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Missionaries do their work in a perilous environment. Such has been the rise of ideas such as “multi-culturalism”, that many missionaries now go by a different title: aid–workers, social-workers, educators, or even consultants. Opting for different titles is understandable. In the popular imagination, missionary is increasingly synonymous with colonialist, imperialist, or patronizing religious types “forcing” their… Continue Reading

We Don’t Want Your White Man’s Religion

We Don’t Want Your White Man’s Religion

This entry is part 32 of 63 in the series Ten Mangled Words You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

In Africa, particularly where black nationalist sentiments arise, it is not uncommon to hear the title of this post thrown around in conversation. Similarly, half-formed sentiments are uttered about missionaries who replaced the harmonious earth-religion of the peaceful indigenous people with their foreign religion, so as to steal their land and subjugate them. The saddest… Continue Reading

Lessons from a Visiting Missionary

Lessons from a Visiting Missionary

Jeff Straub One of the real delights of working at the seminary is the opportunity to hear the visiting chapel speakers. Our students get the privilege of hearing from some choice servants of the Lord. A recent missionary was no exception. It was a special blessing for me to hear him, as the brother who… Continue Reading

Teaching Overseas: Life’s Small Challenges

Teaching Overseas: Life’s Small Challenges

Jeff Straub Teaching overseas is a great opportunity, but it is not without challenges. These challenges abound in the wider world. Little things or big things cause discomfort to Westerners who are accustomed to conditions back home. Last week, I mentioned waiting in line. This is a standard feature in some parts of the globe.… Continue Reading

Teaching Overseas: On Arrival

Teaching Overseas: On Arrival

Jeff Straub So, you made it overseas. You cleared customs and now you are on your way to you host’s home. Hopefully you have arrived early enough to allow your system to adjust. You have even exchanged a few dollars to have local currency. Now what? Things will likely be different than what you are… Continue Reading

Teaching Overseas: Preparing to Go

Teaching Overseas: Preparing to Go

Jeff Straub Last week I began a series on overseas teaching. This week I want to consider the preparation necessary for such a venture. For those who regularly travel internationally, this essay may seem a bit rudimentary. But for others who are less experienced, there may be some helpful information here. Once you have decided… Continue Reading

Teaching Overseas

Teaching Overseas

Jeff Straub We live in days of tremendous technological advances. We carry phones that take pictures, tell time, serve as alarm clocks and stop watches, and keep track of our daily schedules. Our computers are smaller, more powerful, and have more storage than anyone imagined just thirty years ago. I carry a library of more… Continue Reading

The Fields Are Still White—Laborers Are Still Needed

The Fields Are Still White—Laborers Are Still Needed

Jeff Straub The modern missionary movement is now about 225 years old, if you mark its beginning with the journey of William Carey to India in 1792. Of course, students of missions history recognize that missions hardly began with Carey. It dates to the New Testament era and the great missionary apostle, Paul. Moreover, looking… Continue Reading

Missionary Sacrifice, Sixty Years Later

Missionary Sacrifice, Sixty Years Later

Friday, January 8, was the sixtieth anniversary of what is likely the best known missionary sacrifice of the twentieth century. Jim Elliott and his four companions, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCulley, all surrendered their lives to follow Christ. They gave up those lives on a lonely stretch of sand by the… Continue Reading