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Perspectives on the World Christian Movement - Final Review

Terms in this set (91)

LESSON 9
LESSON 9
Differentiate between regular and frontier mission efforts.
Regular mission: cross-cultural Christian work that spreads the gospel within people groups where churches have already been established (P0-P1).

Frontier mission: cross-cultural Christian work that seeks to establish churches within people groups where it does not yet exist (P2-P3).
(SG) Define and use the terms people bloc, people group, unimax people group, sociopeople and unreached people group.
People bloc: a limited number of summary categories into which we can place peoples in order to analyze them. Two commonly used blocs are Major Cultural Blocs (Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Ethno-Religious, Non-Religious, Other) and Affinity Blocs (shared elements of language, history, culture, etc.)

People group: for evangelistic purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.

Unimax people group: the maximum sized group sufficiently unified to be the focus of a single people movement to Christ.

Sociopeople group: a relatively small association of peers who have an affinity for one another based upon a shared interest, activity, or occupation.

Unreached people group: an entire group who has not yet been effectively reached with the gospel, no church made up of people like themselves with whom they can fellowship.
*Memorize the definition of a people group in reference to evangelization.
For evangelistic purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.
(SG) Explain the essential missionary task using and defining the term missiological breakthrough.
The essential missionary task is to establish a viable indigenous church-planting movement that carries the potential to renew whole extended families and transform whole societies.

A missiological breakthrough refers to the achievement of a viable (grows on its own) indigenous (not seen as foreign) church-planting movement that continues to reproduce intergenerational fellowships that are able to evangelize the rest of the people group.
(SG) Describe the rough percentages of the world's population who live in unreached peoples and in reached peoples.
Unreached: 40%
Reached: 60%
*Recall how many unimax groups are in the four major cultural blocs of unreached peoples.
Muslims: 3,300
Hindus: 2,400
Ethno-Religious: 1,200
Buddhists: 700
(SG) Describe the imbalance of missionary allocation in today's world.
Only about 10% of the global evangelical mission force is presently focusing on the 40% of the world's population that are currently beyond reach of the Church.
Describe the importance of "mother-tongue ministry" and "mother-tongue Scriptures" for establishing churches that multiply and endure.
Without Scriptures in the mother tongue, churches are not able to sustain spiritual depth into succeeding generations. They have difficulty answering false teaching, waging spiritual warfare, and avoiding syncretism.
Describe the value of having culturally distinct churches.
Ethnic churches are justified not only for pragmatic reasons (because they work) but also because they are rooted in the doctrine of creation. In God's image, expressing God-given creativity, people have developed different cultures. Ethnic churches allow for prayer in specific heart languages, with meaningful gestures, ululations, and prostrations. People specific churches, and their accompanying theologians, complement other cultures' understanding of the Bible. They are also a good place to begin global mission work, allowing a partnership to begin with international Christians living in our own cities.
(SG) Explain the biblical grounds for and strategic value of urban ministry.
Through urbanization, God is drawing people of every race, tribe, and language to places where they can be reached with the gospel. The migration to the cities is so large that it must have a divinely-ordained, redemptive purpose behind it.

The movement of history throughout the Bible is from the garden of Eden, where the fall occurred, to the New Jerusalem, the city that God is preparing for us.

In the Bible, urban mission began with Jonah. Christ's commission to "go and make disciples of all peoples" forbids neglecting cities with their multitudes from all tribes and races.
(SG) Explain the importance of recognizing subtle social boundaries in order to plant churches among every people group.
For evangelistic purposes, recognizing subtle social boundaries is critical. Those barriers often determine what a people group is. Initial small-group evangelism is most effective when directed at a specific social group or class. Once those individual groups are won to Christ, those social boundaries usually dissolve and can form a single church congregation. In the early stages of conversion, however, attention to issues like wealth, occupation, and status is crucial.
Explain how good mission strategy express both faith and faithfulness while allowing for the Lordship of the Holy Spirit in mission decisions.
Faithfulness involves planning and working together toward success with a consecrated pragmatism. We should never change our doctrine or our ethical principles in order to do something that "works," we should remain flexible regarding methods. Strategy does not eliminate the Holy Spirit. Good strategies present the Holy Spirit with plans that He can change. Good strategies also provide human co-workers a common vision around which they can unite.
LESSON 10
LESSON 10
*Define culture using Kwast's four layer model.
Worldview is the underlying framework for beliefs which inform values which in turn shape patterns of behavior.

Worldview: what is real?
Beliefs: what is true?
Values: what is good or best?
Behavior: what is done?
Explain why understanding worldview is essential to effective cross-cultural communication.
Gospel communicators need to achieve more than a surface-level understanding of the cultures they enter. Awareness of the four layers of culture (behavior, values, beliefs, worldview) is essential for the gospel to be effective in a cross-cultural setting.

It is essential to connect on a worldview level. For the biblical story to be received and believed by a people, it must find a place and connection within their worldview.
(SG) Describe what missionaries can do to communicate the gospel with sensitivity in cross-cultural settings.
It is only by active, loving engagement with the local people, thinking in their thought patterns, understanding their worldview, listening to their questions, and feeling their burdens, that the whole believing community will be able to respond to their need. By common prayer, thought, and heart-searching, in dependence on the Holy Spirit, expatriate and local believers may learn together how to present Christ and contextualize the gospel with an equal degree of faithfulness and relevance.
Explain how ethnocentrism shapes our perceptions and interactions with other cultures.
Ethnocentrism is based on our natural tendency to judge the behavior of people in other cultures by the values and assumptions of our own.
Explain what it means to contextualize the gospel.
Contextualization refers to efforts to present the gospel within the context of cultural and social forms that are recognized by the respondent community.

This can be by communicating the message itself in a local context, the messengers identifying with the people, or the movements of those who believe.
Describe how a redemptive analogy works to help people hear the gospel.
Redemptive analogies facilitate human understanding of redemption. Their God-ordained purpose is to precondition the mind in a culturally significant way to recognize Jesus as Messiah.
Explain what can go wrong when surface-level behavior is not accompanied by conviction about deep-level meaning.
God intends to bring about good changes in cultures by the power of the gospel. One common mistake occurs when missionaries bring a surface-level change and fail to recognize that an alternate deep-peep meaning has been applied to the change. The message of the gospel can be significantly warped. The better way to communicate the gospel is to bring understanding at the level of worldview assumptions. Missionaries can then work with local believers to find how God may be changing their surface-level culture of behavior.
Describe the kinds of encounters that are needed to fully communicate the gospel.
Truth encounters deal with understanding, using teaching as the vehicle of action.

Allegiance encounters deal with relationships, using witness as the vehicle of action.

Power encounters deal with freedom, using spiritual warfare as the vehicle of action.
Explore the need to develop and utilize strategies for cultures that primarily consist of oral learners.
It is estimated that two-thirds of people on earth today are primarily "oral learners," but an estimated 90% of the world's Christian workers presenting the gospel use highly literate communication styles. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for oral learners to hear and understand the message and communicate it to others.
(SG) Describe the value of decoding the gospel message from its original cultural setting and encoding it in a respondent culture.
The goal is to communicate as much as possible of the biblical message, with as minimal intrusion of influences from the missionary's own culture as possible. This supports the ultimate goal of raising up effective sources of the Christian message from within the target culture. Missionary communication that does not keep this goal in mind is myopic.
Explain the value of communicating the gospel through storytelling.
Storytelling can be one of the most effective ways to communicate the gospel on a worldview level. The story of what Christ has finished and will yet finish can be connected to the unfinished story of the hearers. It's powerful and practical for everyone. Storytelling not only conveys the message in a profound way, it makes it memorable and repeatable.
LESSON 11
LESSON 11
Explain how the incarnation of Christ, both His renunciation and identification, serves as a primary model for communicating the gospel.
Jesus renounced status, independence, and immunity. Wherever missionaries are they should not be in control or work alone, but always with (and preferably under) local Christians. Cross-cultural messengers, especially during their first years of service, need to learn dependence on others. Finally, missionaries should expect to become vulnerable to new temptations, dangers, and diseases.

Jesus took on our full situation. His example challenges our lifestyles and attitudes. The incarnation teaches identification without loss of identity.
(SG) Describe some different aspects of humility that are crucial to missionary work.
First, there is the humility to acknowledge the problem which culture presents, and not to avoid or over-simplify it.

Second, there is the humility to take the trouble to understand and appreciate the culture of those to whom we go.

Third, there is the humility to begin our communication where people actually are and not where we would like them to be.

Fourth, there is the humility to recognize that even the most gifted, dedicated, and experienced missionary can seldom communicate the gospel in another language or culture as effectively as a trained local Christian.

Fifth, there is the humility to trust in the Holy Spirit of God, who is always the chief communicator, who alone opens the eyes of the blind and brings people to new birth.
Describe how a missionary can begin to establish a sense of belonging in a new culture.
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Contrast the way the gospel flows in the different social structures found in urban, peasant, and tribal societies.
Not every person within a society has the same potential for extending the gospel in effective ways. Some societies are structured in such a way that it becomes critically important that gospel communication be initiated by people with particular roles and status.

Tribal societies: tribal decisions are made by a limited number of elders. Most people movements have flourished in these kinds of social structures.

Peasant societies: leadership is exerted by a powerful elite. Caste groupings are common but not the only kind of societal group found in peasant societies. It is important to recognize that these kinds of societies abound in urban environments. People movements often take place in peasant societies.

Urban/Metropolitan societies: individual decision-making patterns are dominant. Organizations are voluntary. Cities are marked by diversity and complexity, so gospel communicators must learn well the specific urban context in order to communicate appropriately.
Explain the necessity of "bi-cultural" bridges for gospel communication.
A "bi-cultural bridge" describes the critically important relationships between missionaries and their counterparts in the recipient culture. A bi-cultural bridge is formed when members of two different cultures learn to understand and adapt to each others' culture, thus enabling meaningful two-way communication between the cultures. Communication across cultures requires relationships that span the gap between cultures.
(SG) Describe how a missionary can maintain a single core identity as they communicate with widely different audiences of the church, the unreached, and the secular world.
An integrated identity worth living for means that we have an alignment between our motivation, our tent making role, our personal gifting, and our apostolic calling. In other words, moved by the love of Christ, we seek ways of living and serving that fit who God has made us and that allow us to carry out our apostolic calling with full integrity.
(SG) Describe four basic principles that will help missionaries communicate effectively in any society.
Personal friendship: relationships foster a connection with the entire community.

Choose effective communicators for your initial approach: the most important of the four principles is to make the initial approach to those who are able to effectively pass on the communication.

Allow time: group decision take time. Individuals who are perceived to have made a decision which threatens group solidarity often bring about a larger negative response.

Address decision makers: if people are being challenged to make a decision which changes beliefs of social structure, it is imperative that such a message is conveyed to key people who are socially capable of making such a decision.
Evaluate decisions regarding a missionary lifestyle in terms of effectiveness in influencing and identifying with people of the receiving culture.
Regardless of how well missionaries may succeed in finding the best entry roles, they are eventually required to assume a long-term role in the society. Different societies have different views about how money is expected to work. Westerners are usually assigned roles by the receiving community, even if they are unaware of those roles and expectations. Missionaries should closely examine the local society, seeking to identify a local role that corresponds in some way with what is termed, the "righteous rich." Attempts must be made at adjusting lifestyles, decisions made about loaning money, and care should be given to recognize how money from Westerners compromises the testimony of local followers.
LESSON 12
LESSON 12
Describe some of the most critical dimensions of global human need and comprehend the nature of poverty.
Absolute poverty describes situations in which people have an absolute insufficiency to meet their basic needs.

Relative poverty describes situations in which peoples are on the margins of society. A person's standard of living is compared in relation to others in the community or nation.

Major causes of poverty are broken relationships, misused power, and fear.

Poverty is essentially a spiritual issue. Only the gospel (all of it) contains the hope that the poor will be enabled to live in communities where relationships are restored (broken relationships), abusive power is broken (misused power), and fears are allayed.
(SG) List and evaluate four approaches to meeting global human need.
Economic growth: focuses on macro-statistics and issues of a country instead of micro-economic factors such as adequate food, fuel, and health for each family. This has not proven to bring lasting help to the poor.

Political advocacy: often focuses upon oppressive regimes, violates of human rights, and exploitative commercial structures which widen the gap between haves and have-nots. Best done by and for insiders, rather than outsiders.

Relief: aims at providing basic survival necessities for victims of war, natural disaster, and prolonged injustice. Aims at short-term survival.

Community / Transformational development: focuses on both adequate assessment and the use of personal and community abilities and resources. The goal is to meet basic needs with local leadership and development. Aims at enabling a community to meet its own basic needs.

All these approaches hold little promise without Christian Transformational Development.
(SG) Compare and contrast Christian relief ministry with transformational development.
Community developers aim to enable local people to mobilize local resources to meet basic needs in an enduring way throughout an entire community. Development workers seek to base the changes upon the values of the kingdom of God as revealed in Scripture. When Christian missionaries seek to do development work, they usually aim to plant new churches or renew existing churches as the basis for the crucial worldview and value shifts which are needed for lasting change.
Describe the difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty.
Absolute poverty describes situations in which people have an absolute insufficiency to meet their basic needs.

Relative poverty describes situations in which peoples are on the margins of society. A person's standard of living is compared in relation to others in the community or nation.
Explain how poverty results from broken relationships, misuse of power, and fear.
Major causes of poverty are broken relationships, misused power, and fear.

Poverty is essentially a spiritual issue. Only the gospel (all of it) contains the hope that the poor will be enabled to live in communities where relationships are restored (broken relationships), abusive power is broken (misused power), and fears are allayed.
(SG) Explain how efforts to encourage reconciliation between peoples are an important aspect of transformational development.
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(SG) Explain how church planting, when properly integrated with development efforts, can avoid the "rice Christian" problem.
The goal is for local churches to provide a foundation for true transformation of society. When development efforts empower the local church leadership to help their surrounding communities, Christian conversion simply to gain access to basic provisions (for example, food) is minimized if not eliminated.
Explain why and how Christian community development offers greater hope when integrated with church planting.
Community developers aim to enable local people to mobilize local resources to meet basic needs in an enduring way throughout an entire community. Development workers seek to base the changes upon the values of the kingdom of God as revealed in Scripture. When Christian missionaries seek to do development work, they usually aim to plant new churches or renew existing churches as the basis for the crucial worldview and value shifts which are needed for lasting change.
(SG) Answer the charge that Christian missionaries destroy tribal cultures.
It is true that missionaries destroy certain things in cultures, just as doctors sometimes must destroy certain things in a human body if a patient is to live. But missionaries should only bring culture changes required for New Testament ethics and for the survival of the people. Often the two requirements overlap.
Describe how sustainable change comes about by the power of the gospel and empowered local leadership of new churches.
It's important to recognize that lasting change takes place only when local leaders act as the agents of change. At the center of lasting transformation are the beginnings of new Christ-following communities. In this approach to societal change, the missionary's roles is to be a catalyst and a source of new ideas and information. This approach seems to take more time and leave more up to the Holy Spirit. But it is the only way to bring about changes which are not dependent on the presence or advocacy of outsiders.
Explore the role of missionaries as cultural change agents and their potential long term impact for the Kingdom. (Kietzman and Smalley)
It's important to recognize that lasting change takes place only when local leaders act as the agents of change. At the center of lasting transformation are the beginnings of new Christ-following communities. In this approach to societal change, the missionary's roles is to be a catalyst and a source of new ideas and information. This approach seems to take more time and leave more up to the Holy Spirit. But it is the only way to bring about changes which are not dependent on the presence or advocacy of outsiders.
LESSON 13
LESSON 13
(SG) Describe organic churches in terms of the core reality of the presence of the living Jesus being served by His people.
The core reality of the Church is Jesus Christ being followed, loved, and obeyed. The Church is an embodiment of the risen Jesus.

Church: the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet.
(SG) Explain why Jesus being obeyed as king means His kingdom can be at work through churches in their communities.
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Explain why and how churches can be fruitful by reproducing other churches.
We must plant the seed of the gospel of the Kingdom and the fruit that will grow will be changed lives living out their faith together. We all carry within us the seed of future generations of the church. We are to take that seed and plant it in the soil of every people group under the authority of our King. Christ in us is the seed of the next generation. If we put Christ and His Kingdom first, we leave behind agents under submission to the reign of their King.
Explain why and how churches can be fruitful by bringing modest but substantial transformation in local culture and in global problems.
Our mission is to find and develop Christ followers rather than church members. The difference is seen in transformed lives that bring change to neighborhoods and nations. Simply planting Jesus in these cultures and helping His church emerge indigenously from the soil would see self-sustaining and reproducing church movements emerge. Churches don't always bear the fruit that they should without being challenged, so it's important that they be cultivated by equipping them to see Christ's life flourish in their society.
Distinguish between New Testament commands, apostolic practices, and human customs. Describe the value of this distinction for church planting.
New Testament commands: these are primary, carrying the authority of heaven. They are at the heart of obeying Christ.

Apostolic practices: these are not commanded. They may have value, but they are not expected to be part of every believer's practice.

Human customs: these are practices not mentioned in the New Testament. They are often Christian traditions developed in Western countries and are foreign to the people. They may be valuable, but they are not necessarily looked to as an authoritative source for life and church practice. Distinguishing human customs from Christ's commands rescues young, maturing churches from most problems with legalism and syncretism.

Each has value, but churches multiply faster when leaders are encouraged to discern between these three levels of authority and make obeying New Testament commands their non-negotiable top priority.
Explain why evangelizing whole families helps church planting movements multiply rapidly.
Evangelizing whole families is appropriate in most cultures of the world. The Holy Spirit flows readily through the bonds that exist between family members and close friends (Acts 10:24, 10:44). Many passages in Scripture describe family units as the agents of mission and in many ways, the core of what constituted the Church.
Explain why dependency on outside funds frustrates rather than helps church movements to reproduce and influence their society. (How can dependency be avoided.)
An almost universal impediment to reproduction is a missionary subsidy that stifles nationals' own giving and builds a dependent spirit. Paying national pastors with outside funds nearly always stifles spontaneous reproduction and eventually leads to deep resentment when the source no longer equals the demand.
(SG) Describe how the images of salt and light illustrate the mission of churches to their own people group or city.
Light: Jesus tells the disciples that they are to be a city on a hill. The Church will somehow become an alternate city within the cities of earth. It is to seek the good of the cities and cultures that it inhabits.

Salt: The Church is to be a preserving force. There is a more modest expectation of rich cultural presence preserving as salt and illumining as light.
Explain why churches need to be "cultivated," trained, renewed, or even re-planted in order to bear fruit in their peoples and communities.
Our mission is to find and develop Christ followers, not merely gather more church members. The difference should be seen in transformed lives that bring change to neighborhoods and nations. Churches don't always bear the fruit that they should without being challenged, so it's important to cultivate them.
Describe what makes a church truly indigenous. (Give extra attention to Smalley's article.)
Indigenous churches are groups of believers who live out their life, including their socialized Christian activity, in the patterns of the local society, and for whom any transformation of that society comes out of their felt needs under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and Scripture.
(SG) Recognize the value of people movements.
Throughout history, most of the people who had ever followed Christ have done so as part of a people movement. There are reversions, but on the whole, once a people has become Christian, it stays Christian even in the face of vigorous persecution.
Recognize the similarities of people movements and reproducing chains of churches. (Give extra attention to reviewing McGravran's concept of people movements.)
People movements are waves of group decisions to follow Christ by people who share culture and kinship, while retaining their identity and relationships within their people. One outstanding feature, which is almost always part of sustained people movements, is multiplying networks of simple and powerful churches. Throughout history, most of the people who had ever followed Christ have done so as part of people movements.
Explain why training leaders is essential to sustaining church planting movements.
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(SG) Describe the features and values of theological education by extension (TEE)
Theological Education by Extension (TEE) brought instructors or trainers directly to students in their communities; enabled training to be brought to those who were already recognized as worthy leaders; and focused more on training leaders to actually serve and plant churches.
LESSON 14
LESSON 14
(SG) Describe why church planting among unreached peoples is difficult, feasible, and crucially important.
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Describe conglomerate churches formed by extraction evangelism and evaluate their potential for multiplying.
Conglomerate churches are the "one-by-one out of the social group" method.

Extraction is the practice of urging an individual or family to divorce themselves from their family and culture in order to follow Christ. It invariably slows down, and often entirely freezes, a movement to Christ.

The churches that result from evangelism by extraction are "sealed off" from the culture instead of permeating the entire people group with the life and message of Christ.
Explain how people-specific church planting efforts can lead toward reconciliation and unity.
All persons are equal in Christ. However, the initial thrust of the gospel is not necessarily the challenging of evil social institutions. The best way to achieve reconciliation of the races and peoples of earth is to see many from every segment and race introduced to an obedient relationship with Christ. Under Christ's Lordship, genuine brotherhood, justice, goodness, and righteousness can be increased. God will one day bring about truly transformed societies in which antagonism of class and race is overcome.
*Use the C-Spectrum to compare contextualization of new movements. (be able to match descriptions with the spectrum)
The C1-C6 Spectrum compares and contrasts types of "Christ-centered communities" found in the Muslim world. All follow Jesus as Lord and the core elements of the gospel are the same from group to group. The six types in the spectrum are differentiated by language, culture, worship forms, degree of freedom to worship with others, and religious identity. The scale has been broken down into church type, language used, culture used, self-identity of believers, and Muslim perception:

C1 - Traditional church, different language, different culture, Christian, Christian (huge cultural chasm exists between church and surrounding Muslim community)
C2 - Traditional church, similar language, different culture, Christian, Christian (same as C1 except for language)
C3 - Contextualized community, similar language, non-Muslim culture, Christian, Christian (Islamic elements filtered out)
C4 - Contextualized community, similar language, acceptable Muslim culture, follower of Isa, kind of Christian (Muslim background believers avoiding foreign forms)
C5 - Muslim community, similar language, acceptable Muslim culture, Muslim follower of Isa, strange Muslim (believers remain legally and socially within the community of Islam)
C6 - No community, similar language, Muslim culture, private follower of Isa, Muslim (not ideal level, silent about faith, secret followers due to fear/persecution)
Define syncretism and describe why it is a necessary risk to plant culture-affirming, Christ-honoring churches.
Syncretism refers to a blending of Christian faith and non-Christian beliefs and practices. This results in situations in which foreign religious practices have been adopted, but deep-level worldview has not changed.

It is better to meet the risk of syncretism than try to avoid it by operating with a deep trust in the Holy Spirit. Turning new believers to the Scriptures, encouraging them to make biblically informed decisions, all results in new believers learning to use the Scriptures themselves and walking with the Holy Spirit.
(SG) Distinguish three kinds of Christward movements: people movements, church planting movements, and insider movements.
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Explain why a "person of peace" is so critical in beginning Christward movements.
A "person of peace" enables the gospel to multiply rapidly within existing family and community networks.
Explain the distinction between an identity as a Christ-follower and a socio-religious identity labeled as a "Christian."
In many countries today, it is almost impossible for a new follower of Christ to remain in vital relationship with their community without also retaining their socio-religious identity. In these places, the word "Christian" is not understood as referring to sincere believers in Jesus Christ. The term "Christian" calls to mind a socio-religio-political category. By separating the gospel from the myriad of legal, social, and cultural issues implied in changing religious camps, a more straightforward, less-encumbered message can be shared and embraced.
(SG) Explain the difference between implanting the gospel and planting churches when speaking of insider movements.
When planting a church, a new social group of individual believers, often strangers to one another, are gathered together into new fellowship groups. Church planters try to help these individual believers become like a family or a community.

In contrast, insider movements can be considered to be "implanted" when the gospel takes root within a pre-existing community.
(SG) Describe some of the challenges and opportunities of seeing Christ-following movements among Hindu peoples.
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(SG) Describe the historic backdrop for questions about Christian identity and describe the potential for different ideas about Christian identity to emerge in the future.
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Evaluate the practicality of focusing on one people group in culturally distinctive churches which aim not to be exclusive or divisive.
As the church forms, it will have a built-in social cohesion in which everybody feels at home. The sense of belonging is far more crucial than most Americans realize in the societies of most unreached people groups.
LESSON 15
LESSON 15
Describe what it means to be a World Christian.
World Christians are not better people or some kind of elite who achieve a higher echelon of discipleship. They are day-to-day disciples for whom Christ's global cause has become their integrating, overriding priority. World Christians are sustained in their commitment by quiet exhilaration that springs from the confidence that ultimately Jesus will be loved as Lord by all peoples. Instead of looking to Christ as merely a helper, they set their lives to be servants of Jesus.
Explain what is meant by a "wartime lifestyle" and why it is important for Christians to adjust their lifestyles for Christ's global cause.
Theorizing what it might be like if Christians took the Great Commission just as seriously as World War II, Winter proposes the idea of a "wartime lifestyle." In this prolonged spiritual war, those Christians who stay home as senders and prayers can deliberately and decisively adopt a missionary support level as their standard of living and their basis of lifestyle, regardless of their income. This would imbue individuals and families with a concern for reaching the unreached peoples and assist them in practical ways to live successfully within the maximum limits of expenditure as defined by an agreed upon existing mission structure.
Describe specific disciplines and practices that help World Christians pursue a life of strategic significance in God's purpose.
Every World Christian should expect to major in one practice, minor in the others, and plan on practicing them all:

The practice of Going - immersing ourselves cross-culturally. Almost everyone is involved in short-term mission or finds business-as-mission opportunities.

The practice of Welcoming - connecting with those who come to us. We should be ready and eager to befriend, serve, and disciple visitors and contacts from the nations.

The practice of Sending - supporting those who go. Everyone should be involved in supporting, encouraging, and praying for cross-cultural missionaries.

The practice of Mobilizing - empowering others in His purpose. Everyone will find seasons in their life when they help cast the vision for the Great Commission, renew conviction, recruit new laborers, or train others to be cross-cultural disciple-makers.

The discipline of Community - walking with others. Link your life with committed communities of others pursuing the same vision.

The discipline of Prayer - co-working with God. Coordinate your life with others to pray regularly for world evangelization.

The discipline of Simplicity - living to give. Order your lifestyle in ways that liberate them to give generously and regularly to advance world evangelization.

The discipline of Learning - grow what you know. Structure your life in ways that help you take in what is currently unfolding, grow in your understanding of God's great story working out in history.
(SG) Describe a variety of ways that ordinary believers can take initiative to engage with God's greater purposes, beyond the traditional roles of the missionary and the sender who prays and gives.
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(SG) Describe the factors that contribute to short-term mission being done well.
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*Describe the integration of business and mission and some of its unique challenges. (Essay focus on BAM)
Using business as a vehicle for missions and ministry is not new. Throughout mission history, beginning in biblical times, working in business has been blended with laboring to fulfill Christian mission. Three reasons why today's missions community has been reluctant to work with business: belief that work takes away from ministry, belief that businesses either serve society or money but not both, and tax complications. Additionally, concerns over work requirements leaving little time for ministry, career business people chart their own courses without insight and experience of mission movement, and no business training in cross-cultural ministry.

Four variations:

Tentmaking: Christians find employment in cross-cultural contexts.

Marketplace Ministry: Christian business professionals becoming effective witnesses in the workplace.

Business as Mission (BAM): Business ventures created and managed specifically for the purpose of advancing the cause of Christ in less-reached parts of the world.

Christian Microenterprise Development: Seeks to help the world's poorest people start successful, God-honoring businesses with the help of small loans.
Describe the features of Business as Mission and explain the strategic value of this approach
Business as Mission (BAM), or sometimes called Great Commission Companies or Kingdom Businesses, are created and managed specifically for the purpose of advancing the cause of Christ in less-reached and/or less-developed parts of the world. Like the apostle Paul, work was not a necessary evil but an essential part of his missionary strategy: added credibility, served as a model to converts, showed how normal Christians could make disciples, opportunities to model Christ-like attributes and lifestyle.

Features of BAM: primary interest/focus is the cross-cultural ministry to the unreached, believe well-run businesses can themselves be redemptive influences in society, businessmen view the business as their ministry and workers/suppliers/customers as their flock, usually involves larger or multinational businesses, expected to be funded by private investors.
(SG) Identify some of the most helpful ways to determine what might be your best contribution to God's global mission.
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(SG) Describe the strategic value of reaching international visitors.
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(SG) Describe the practical steps a person can take on a journey to becoming engaged in cross-cultural mission.
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(SG) Describe some specific ways of getting connected to on-going ministries of mission outreach, mobilization, and training.
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Describe what makes strategic evangelism and church-planting partnerships work best.
One key feature of churches (pastoral structures) which are effective in evangelizing unreached people groups: they either form a partnership with an established mission agency, or they end up forming a new mission agency (apostolic structures)
INTEGRATIVE ESSAY TOPICS
INTEGRATIVE ESSAY TOPICS
Be prepared to recall two effective principles for church planting that you learned from the examples in case studies.
Tim and Rebecca Lewis: church planters in North Africa, early house church failed, two brothers arrived and invited them into their family to share gospel, whole family accepted Christ. Key principle: instead of attempting to gather individual believers and form them into family-like fellowships, God showed Tim and Rebecca hw to plant the gospel as a movement within existing households and communities.

Brother Jacob and Sufi master Ibrahim: Jesus appeared to Ibrahim, directed him to find Brother Jacob, who in turn shared the gospel and led Ibrahim to faith. Ibrahim converted 200 of his disciples, who led their families to faith. Key principle: the followers remained in their family and community relationships, openly baptized as followers of Jesus and had no need to change their religious identity from Muslim to Christian.
Why is church planting central to all that God wants to accomplish through his people?
We've seen the blessing of Abraham extended to the nations. The blessing spread at an uneven pace through history but, nevertheless, God has propelled His purpose forward with unrelenting passion. Christ has given us a very narrowly defined task to finish. We are mandated to bring about a breakthrough of kingdom communities of obedient faith in every people group. The gospel can not be discovered by people, it must be disclosed to people. God sends messengers to convey His invitation to relationship with Him. The goal for mission should be to plant a cluster of growing congregations in every unchurched segment of mankind. The kind of church needed among unreached peoples is a viable (thriving, multiplying), indigenous (culturally native) church, an embodiment of the risen Lord Himself.
Identify at least three different types of fruit that healthy churches produce. (They are all indicated in lesson thirteen.)
Church is defined as a group of believers in Christ dedicated to obeying His commands.

Churches are intended by God to bear fruit in two ways: by reproducing themselves and by bringing forth life-giving changes in the world.

Reproduction: it is normal for churches to reproduce. Churches multiply when people are following (and obeying) Christ, and when leadership is developed (both encouraged and trained). Probably the most important thing idea of multiplying churches is to promote the core reality of church: people obeying Jesus' commands in love. Types of fruit within reproduction: disciples building up other disciples, churches building-up and multiplying other churches, teaching believers how to evangelize neighbors and relatives, evangelization of whole families (the agents of mission and core of the church).

Cultivate fruit in their culture: our mission is to find and develop Christ followers, not merely gather more church members. The Church is to seek the good of the cities and cultures that it inhabits, to become both salt (a preserving force) and light (the Church will become an alternate city within the cities of earth). Types of fruit within cultural change: initiation of gospel movements, influencing cities to bring substantial change to cultures, become God's chosen instrument of blessing ready to face the five greatest challenges in our day (spiritual lostness, egocentric leadership, poverty, disease, and ignorance).
THIS SET IS OFTEN IN FOLDERS WITH...