Mission Hits #65 (May 2025)
- From Every Nation (Chris Howles)
- 16 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Welcome to Mission Hits, a monthly blog highlighting stimulating and significant recent resources related to world mission and world Christianity.
Welcome to Mission Hits # 65 (May 2025)
From William Carey’s legacy to church planting in Central Asia, from African Christian literature to the realities of suffering in cross-cultural mission, from concerns about missions fraud to reflections on the ‘Back to Jerusalem’ movement, I hope you’ll find much here to engage the mind, nourish the soul, and deepen joyful participation in God’s global purposes.
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Have a blessed and mission-minded month ahead, and I'll see you again soon for the next edition,
Chris (Howles)
Director of Cross-Cultural Training, Oak Hill College (UK)
Doctorate in Intercultural Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary (US)
ESSENTIALS (if you only have time for one...)
Essential for Missionaries
Whether it’s ants or visa paperwork, the frustrations of cross-cultural life are rarely solved. This sobering & encouraging blog post from Julie Jean Francis asks whether actually the real battle isn’t logistical but spiritual, and whether this is where the real spiritual formation takes place? This thoughtful 'A Life Overseas' piece will surely resonate for many of you.
Essential for Church Leaders
"Reading non-Western scholarship has bolstered my confidence in Scripture’s truthfulness and relevance. The global church hasn’t softened my preaching; it’s sharpened it." Dustin Messer gives some examples and advice for how this happens in practice for this Gospel Coalition article.
Essential for Mission Agency Workers
Drew Reynolds (pseudonym for security reasons) looks deeply into the theme of Paul's suffering in 2 Corinthians as a model for cross-cultural gospel workers today: "Apart from experiencing and embracing weakness and suffering, Paul would have failed to know and act as a conduit of the depths of Christ’s power and sufficiency." Mission agencies would do well to sensitively and honestly talk of such things with prospective and current mission partners.
Essential for Christians Partnering as Senders
I could easily imagine this short article catalysing some conversations in mission committees or small group settings. Written primarily for Christians in the US, some of the suggestions would resonate beyond that. Ten quick bitesize suggestions.
GENERAL (well worth your time)
MissioNexus President Ted Esler asks big questions about big topics in the missions world, and is well-positioned to do so. This time, fraud - not financial, but in reporting. "Transformation in an unreached culture is seldom quick. It is a generational game. Unfortunately, we are not wired to wait upon the Lord but instead are looking for miracles. This makes us susceptible…"
Bruce Barron interviews Marcus Grohmann, director of the Alliance for Vulnerable Mission, about how resource inequality and cultural/language gaps between missionaries and the people they work alongside can inadvertently entrench dependence, prosperity theology, and Western hegemony.
Some of you I'm sure will be interested to read this article from Evangelical Focus outlining some of the key themes and ideas being discussed and discerned at the 2025 Ibero-American Missionary Cooperation Congress (COMIBAM) meeting - which gathered over 1,600 evangelicals from 25 countries (mostly from across South/Central America). Good to be alert to how brothers and sisters from other parts of the world (to me) are thinking missiologically. For a similar article from 2024 about what COALA (mission leaders from Asia, Africa and Latin America) are thinking/doing, see here.
AUDIO/VISUAL (podcasts & videos)
Really appreciated this interview with Justin Schell about his recent book on a biblical theology of mission 'The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church'. He speaks so insightfully about the centrality of the concept of 'witness' and the role of suffering in mission. 45min episode of the 'Transformed and Transformational' podcast from TeachBeyond.
If you keep hearing about William Carey but don't know much about him or why he's such a significant and important historical Christian figure, then this 2h podcast (split into two episodes) is a really enjoyable introduction to his life and times - the successes and the failures. From the 'Martyrs and Missionaries' podcast.
This one's a little different as it's from the popular 'The Rest is History' podcast. But this series of 4 episodes about The Congo Free State touches upon a lot of questions relevant to anyone interested in mission history, including the mixed, ambiguous relationship between European missionaries and violent colonialism in 19th century Africa.
DIGGING DEEPER (challenging but rewarding)
Israel Olofinjana writes an essay for the Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World about what re-imagining global missiology looks like in a changing and changed world, particularly in relation to the proximity of mission to power. Too many wise voices are raising these concerns for us to ignore them. For a shorter, more user-friendly version looking at what the anniversaries of the Nicene Creed and the Berlin Congress this year teach us about church unity and diversity today, see here.
Linking the scattering of early Jewish believers after Jerusalem’s fall with church-planting dynamics today, this blog post (from a US missionary in Central Asia)shows how diaspora and displacement often become the soil in which new churches can be planted and grow: "That pattern is that it’s often communities of displaced locals that are more open to the gospel and who provide the first foothold for communities of faith."
A helpful corrective warning the Western church against overemphasising the 'Back to Jerusalem' narrative and to instead look at the wider context and character of Chinese mission. "The exceptional strides taken in recent years in intentionally sending workers understandably garner the attention of the global church, feeding the 'Back to Jerusalem' narrative. Yet the more complex dynamics of Christians from China joining the global Chinese diaspora are also part of the story of God’s work in and through China’s church." From Brent Fulton at the ever-excellent ChinaSource.
BOOKS (recent releases)
Links are to Amazon for best info/reviews. Other outlets are available...
Sam George, Bulus Galadima & Jeanne Wu (editors) (2025)
"This collection of essays from leading scholars and seasoned practitioners explores the journeys of modern Asian diasporas from a Christian perspective. The authors cover pertinent topics such as justice amongst migrant workers, immigration policies, and climate migration, while simultaneously reflecting on the biblical perspective of diaspora. Timely and practical, this book reveals how God moves with Asian people, making himself known amongst them and through them"
D. Scott Hildreth
"In this concise and informative book [the author] delves into the heart of Christian evangelism and missions, drawing inspiration from the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:16–20. With a focus on practical insights and biblical principles, this guide equips believers to actively participate in both local conversations about Jesus and the global mission of sharing the gospel."
Aaron Menikoff & Harshit Singh
"In this brief guide, pastors Aaron Menikoff from Atlanta, Georgia, and Harshit Singh from Lucknow, India, share their journeys leading missions-centered churches in two different settings. Through their personal stories, they teach Scripture-led methods for fostering missions-minded congregations. Emphasizing the importance of patient training and church planting [the authors] help pastors and staff overcome geographic, cultural, and linguistic barriers to passionately start and strengthen churches around the world."
MISCELLANEOUS (varied but valuable)
Peruvian-born missiologist Samuel Escobar died in April, aged 90. In his writing, teaching, and practice, he made a vast impact upon thousands worldwide and leaves a huge legacy, including through the IFES and Lausanne movements. "A charismatic Peruvian theologian, Escobar was a prophetic voice whose vision of a gospel rooted in both evangelism and social transformation left a lasting mark on global evangelicalism." Articles remembering his person and work and impact from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, from Christianity Today magazine, from IVP and from Infemit.
100-page PDF report from Patmos/Gallup researching how people across 150 countries (divided into 7 'missiological clusters') approach religion, faith, and the Bible. Some helpful big picture analysis here that mission leader/thinkers may be interested to engage with.
Ronald Kalifungwa (Zambia) on why it's not enough to import Western Christian books into Africa, and what the challenges, opportunities, and realities are facing African theological writers today. This is important stuff for anyone interested in African Christianity.
QUOTES (wise one-liners)
(1) “Mission is the intentional crossing of barriers from Church to non-church in word and deed for the sake of the proclamation of the Gospel.”
Stephen Neill
(2) "Conversion to Christ does not produce a bland universal citizenship: it produces distinctive discipleships, as diverse and variegated as human life itself."
Andrew Walls
(3) "If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all!"
David Livingstone
GLOBAL INSIGHT (critical news & trends)
"In the past six years, churchgoing Christians have increased from 8 percent to 12 percent of the population. The number of 18-to-24-year-olds attending church has risen from 4 percent to 16 percent, with young men increasing from 4 percent to 21 percent. Nineteen percent of churchgoers are now from an ethnic minority, but 32 percent of churchgoers aged 18 to 54 are from an ethnic minority." John Stevens writing for The Gospel Coalition.
It's been a noticed and noteworthy trend for a few years now: African Christians leaving the faith and turning back to traditional African religious practices. This Al Jazeera article studies this phenomenon in Nigeria specifically: "Many attribute it to growing apathy towards Christianity, but some say pastors focusing on material wealth over spiritual wellbeing – something contrary to the Bible’s teachings – leads people to consider alternative religious options".
If you measure by population within a single urban administrative boundary, then Chongqing (32m people) is the largest city in the world - covering a space the size of Austria. A third of the world's laptops are produced there, yet many people have never heard of it! Some lovely pictures and captions in this Guardian Photo collection.
TWEETS (short but significant)
STATS (noteworthy numbers)
(1) Measured by population, only 9 of the world's largest 60 cities are in Europe or North America. SOURCE
(2) Christianity is the largest religion in every continent in the world, apart from Asia where it is just the 6th largest. SOURCE
(3) 5% of African's population could be displaced by climate change in the next 25 years (currently 1.5%) - 113million people. SOURCE
ONLINE EVENTS (Zoom seminars & conferences)
"Explore the dynamic intersection between early Christian communities and contemporary church planting movements by examining the material culture and historical records of churches in Asia Minor during the first three centuries…this immersive learning experience delves into how archaeology informs both ancient and modern mission practices." With Dr Michael T Cooper through 'Ephesiology'. Mondays at 10AM-12PM Eastern Time beginning June 9 until July 28. $200 - 50% off this course with coupon code summerschool
Author's privilege! Oak Hill College is putting on a day conference considering the relationships between migration, mission, and ministry in the UK today. Plenaries from Sam George, Israel Olofinjana, and myself, and seminars looking at particular contemporary diaspora communities. Tuesday 10th June 10am-4pm, £15 online tickets.
The 2025 MIW Virtual Conference is scheduled for June 16-18 from 1300-1500 each day Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)! Main topics include innovation in digital transformation, leadership in mission work, and emerging trends, bringing together top professionals to explore innovative strategies and uncover breakthrough trends in mission-driven work.
HIGHLIGHTS (Most popular from last month's Mission Hits…)
JUST FOR FUN (unrelated but interesting!)
Pick any country, and drag it around a world map to see how it compares in terms of size. More interesting and surprising than you might imagine…
Click any point on the map, select the radius of the circle, and it'll tell you how many people live there. There's all sorts of ways that this would have research usefulness as well as just being fun, interesting, and informative.
I like such things. That might make me odd, but regardless, here's 196 country flags organised by pattern and design.
Full searchable archives of all Mission Hits resources from edition #1
Questions, comments, or suggestions for the next edition?
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