Mission Hits #74 (August 2026)
- From Every Nation (Chris Howles)
- 2 hours 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 #74 (August 2026)
I wonder whether Mission Hits needs a warning attached to it: 'may significantly increase the number of open browser tabs'!
This month's likely culprits include a superb interactive World Migration Report, an extraordinary photographic journey along the Lagos-Abidjan corridor, eight episodes on mission and empire, a new framework for measuring Great Commission progress, and, for when you've had enough missiology, a game involving unidentified objects from the Met.
Proceed carefully…I take no responsibility for how much of this you're going to want to dive into!
If you find Mission Hits valuable, I'd love your help in growing the community by recommending it to others who share a heart for God's global mission.
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
Isn't it great when someone manages to describe an experience you know so well but struggle to articulate ? Patricia Paulichen does just that, capturing that culture-crossing reality of feeling like a capable adult one day and a dependent toddler the next. Many missionaries will find themselves nodding, and then forwarding to others to help them understand too...
Essential for Church Leaders
Catalyst Services have produced an excellent list of creative, fresh ideas for how your church can deepen its global engagement this coming year. These include 'Listen to a diaspora pastor’s story', 'Plan an after-trip ministry for your short-term team' and even 'Introduce a more accurate map'! (And many more.)
Essential for Christians Partnering as Senders
What happens when mission workers experience harassment, abuse or assault within the culture where they serve? Many agencies have policies for internal organisational incidents but far less clarity in these situations. Practical advice here from Amy Young (Global Trellis) to assist mission leaders, agency trustees and member-care teams seeking to close that gap.
GENERAL (well worth your time)
For those of us in the West, apparent church decline here can feel like the decline of Christianity itself. Australian missiologist Graham Joseph Hill invites us to enjoy the depth and breadth of the global church, whilst also rightly warning against the dangers of romanticisation. This is an excellent introduction to the demographic and theological significance of global Christianity today.
Paul Gamston (AIM) has spent the past year talking to church leaders about how their understanding and practice of global mission is changing. He concludes that global gospel vision hasn't disappeared but has become part of a more complex church-mission landscape. Written from and for the UK scene (though lots will no doubt resonate in other Western evangelical settings).
Martin Paterson (theological educator in SE Asia) writes for OMF UK about how churches can encourage more men towards cross-cultural mission without relying on guilt or simplistic appeals to masculinity. He suggests addressing underlying fears and attachments that can quietly close men off to costly gospel service - career, relationships, past failure and the unwillingness to surrender good things for gospel service.
AUDIO/VISUAL (podcasts & videos)
I'm currently really enjoying this excellently produced eight-episode set of narrative podcasts from Missio Nexus, exploring the complex relationship between Christian mission and empire: "Through candid conversations with historians, missiologists, practitioners, and everyday voices, the show traces inherited legacies, blind spots, and the tensions between faith, culture, and power."
I found this a helpful introduction to a crucial missiological concept. What is this 'excluded middle' and why does it matter in global mission today? 22-min episode of the 'Sent Life' podcast from the Center for Great Commission Studies at SEBTS.
Wes Watkins is such a clear, balanced, and articulate exponent of movemental ecclesiology, and whatever your approach to disciple-making movements (DMMs) and such like, it's always worth engaging with the best of it (something its critics do not always do). A 45-min talk Wes gave with Andy Martin at this year's New Frontiers 'Unreached Online 2026' mission conference.
DIGGING DEEPER (challenging but rewarding)
When is a people/place to be considered 'reached'? Justin Schell (Lausanne Movement) questions the familiar 2% threshold and introduces (to me, anyway!) the concept of 'gospel infrastructure' - a framework that some are seeking to use instead, which claims to better assess Great Commission progress, identify needs, and decide what kind of workers should be sent where. This is fascinating.
Ted Esler (President, Missio Nexus) asks why the average age of new missionary recruits seems to be rising, offering 10 explanations (from later adulthood and changing campus ministries to shifts in mobilisation, ecclesiology and attitudes to mission etc). This is very much a US analysis but still a really worthwhile read. The comments below are worth reading too.
I know many of you are in, interested in, or partnering with, the church in Nigeria. The Lausanne Movement has published an excellent long (yet surprisingly easy-to-digest) report by Gideon Para-Mallam about the scale, causes and regional patterns of Christian persecution in Nigeria, tracing the historical, ideological and structural factors behind it. There's a shorter summary ('A Thriving and Bleeding Church: Understanding Persecution in Nigeria') here.
BOOKS (recent releases)
Links are to Amazon for best info/reviews. Other outlets are available...
Billy Coppedge
"A collection of hypothetical short stories that explores some of the questions the global church is facing with the rapid rise of AI. Mission organizations, churches, and individuals are all trying to come to grips with these new technological realities, both the potential blessings and curses. But none of us have walked this road before. We need fresh language, examples, and categories. This book follows one fictional mission organization that is grappling with the complexity and seeming inevitability of technological advances."
Daniel Akin
Note: Updated second edition - "Dr. Daniel Akin is calling today’s church members to a lifestyle of going with the gospel of Jesus Christ—whether going around the world or to people right where they live. With decades of seminary experience as a professor and president, Akin has trained thousands of men and women in both the mandates and methods of fulfilling the Great Commission’s call to take the gospel to every nation. Now he passes along his wisdom in a resource that can be used by individuals and churches far and wide."
Iain M. Duguid
"[The author's] thoughtful exposition of Acts 9–18 explores how God uses unexpected people to advance the Gospel in unexpected places. He offers new insights on this pivotal period in early church history. As readers work through the text, they will gain a strong understanding of Christian history and God’s will for the body of Christ."
MISCELLANEOUS (varied but valuable)
In December 2025 nearly 60 missions agency mobilization leaders from the US gathered in Arizona. Five different presenters shared on varying topics in missions mobilization and then groups brainstormed together in response to questions posed by each presenter. You can download the 21-page collation of notes and learning points from that conference here from the Gospel Mobilization website.
Invites children to explore countries around the world, connects each one to a Bible story, and teaches them to pray for unreached people around the world. "Packed with coloring pages and engaging activities, it’s a fun, hands-on way to grow kids’ hearts for the nation."
Many of you are involved with theological education in Africa, or know others who are. Here's a fantastic-looking new book from the ever-wonderful Langham Literature! "Mburu and Yoakum engage with the concept of fusion, which is the creative combination of African teaching methods within institutional education…This is a must-read for theological educators in search of truly contextual African teaching methods."
QUOTES (wise one-liners)
(1) "Conversion to Christ does not produce a bland universal citizenship: it produces distinctive discipleships, as diverse and variegated as human life itself."
Andrew Walls
(2) "There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: 1. Patience. 2. Patience. 3. Patience."
Hudson Taylor
(3) "Pride and mission are polar opposites. Pride pollutes mission. The mission of Christ is humble mission."
Andy McCullough
GLOBAL INSIGHT (critical news & trends)
A stunning multimedia, scrollable photo-essay about one of the fastest growing and interesting regions of the world - the transnational megalopolis that is the 600-mile corridor between Lagos and Abidjan in West Africa. So beautifully done.
The always compelling 'World Migration Report' is out for this year, and the interactive version is excellent. This is well worth devoting a few minutes to engaging with it.
One of the most fascinating things I've ever read on China: "The US is a society run by lawyers and China is a society run by engineers…In a lawyerly society, you are incentivized to follow the process. In China’s engineering state, you are incentivized to deliver the product."…"In China, all land is ultimately owned by the state…there is no such thing as NIMBY in China"…"Its construction sector relies on a large, mobile workforce that can be deployed rapidly across projects."…BUT also "A system that can align land, capital, labour, and execution to build at extraordinary speed is also a system that can centralize decisions about society itself."
STATS (noteworthy numbers)
(1) Human life expectancy worldwide has risen from 32 years in 1900 to 73 years today. SOURCE
(2) Latin American countries, especially large cities, are seeing collapses in fertility rates: Mexico City: 0.96 (lower than China), Bogotá: 0.8 (lower than South Korea). SOURCE
(3) More than 40% of all international migrants worldwide in 2024 (121 million) were born in Asia, with over 20% originating from just six (Asian) countries. SOURCE
ONLINE EVENTS (Zoom webinars)
Carlos Negrón (Missio Nexus), Matthew Ellison (16:15) and Luke Perkins (President of Crossworld) on Connecting the 9-5 window to the 10/40 window. "The modern marketplace is becoming one of the most effective access points to some of the world’s least-reached peoples. Yet the church often struggles to know how to identify, affirm, prepare, and send marketplace workers well. What does real mobilization look like when someone’s vocation becomes their primary platform for gospel influence?" 12pm-1pm Wednesday August 26th, free for Missio Nexus members.
"[The Chinese diaspora is] the only diaspora presence found in every country of the world. This session examines how Chinese diaspora communities actively participate in and contribute to God’s mission across diverse cultural contexts." Speaker is Dr. Enoch Wan, one of the leading academic authorities in diaspora missiology. Organised by the Lausanne Movement. 13.00 UTC Saturday 29th August.
Many of you know all too well how supporting ageing parents from another country can raise innumerable difficult questions - including whether to remain on the field at all. What does it mean to honour ageing parents while serving cross-culturally? Global Trellis is offering a 12-month (Sep 2026-Aug 2027) online cohort for cross-cultural workers facing these tensions, with monthly Zoom discussions (7am MST: 2nd Thursday of the month), practical resources and peer support. Topics include family communication, supporting from a distance, dementia, legal and financial issues, grief. $197.
HIGHLIGHTS (Most popular from last month's Mission Hits…)
JUST FOR FUN (unrelated but interesting!)
You love books, films, and maps, right? Well, you'll love this. Plots out the routes and locations of all your favourite stories and characters.
This is great fun, though I surprised myself at how rubbish I was at it. Look at a photo of an item from the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art, then guess which place and period it's from, and get scored on accuracy. It's GeoGuessr for history artefacts!
Click on all the countries you've been to, generate a 'scratchmap' image, see the % of each continent you've visited, keep track, and much more!
Full searchable archives of all Mission Hits resources from edition #1
Questions, comments, or suggestions for the next edition?
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