TOP PICKS FOR

MISSIONS Resources

With hundreds of books, videos/DVDs, and other resources available with information on missions, it is hard to know what to choose for providing inspiration and vision to the local congregation.  Liz Claver,  Mission Renewal Network’s missions coordinator, offers her list of most frequently recommended resources for pastors and missions committees.  Topics include the Biblical basis of missions, missions history, current strategy and trends, prayer needs, and practical ways the local congregation can get involved in God’s global mission.  Suggestions for additional “Bests” are welcome.  Contact Mission Renewal Network at 1-603-483-0597   Email: worldetc@aol.com

Best Conferences for Building Missions Vision in the Local Church

ACMC (Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment) 10123 William Carey Dr., Orlando, FL 32832-6931  (800)755-7284   For 30 years, ACMC has pioneered missions mobilization. It’s ministry network of missions-active churches and organizations through which your church can get specific, practical assistance tailored to your church’s global outreach needs. ACMC will help you mobilize your congregation, build vision, and become strategically involved in world evangelization. ACMC’s regional conferences and events throughout year and nation feature top-notch speakers and workshops covering a wide variety of practical topics helpful to the local church.  Web: www.acmc.org Also many resources sold through www.pioneers.org

Best Information on Current Global Missions

U.S. CENTER FOR WORLD MISSION, 1605 Elizabeth St., Pasadena, CA  91104   The USCWM is at the forefront of current missiological strategy and influence, including the Adopt-A-People Group movement.  the Center’s missions education course, “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” is taught in 3000 locations worldwide. A more advanced World Christian Foundations study program offers the essentials of a seminary education with a globalized perspective. Lots of information on the web: www.uscwm.org      Also check out other USCWM ministries.

Best Sources for Global Prayer Focus

GLOBAL PRAYER DIGEST, by U.S, Center for World Mission-Frontier Fellowship, 1605 E. Elizabeth St., Pasadena, CA  91104   A monthly publication and daily devotional guide for praying for unreached people groups. Includes interesting stories of people and people groups. Online at: www.global-prayer-digest.org

OPERATION WORLD, 21st Century Edition, by Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, 2001, Paternoster Publishing Waynesboro, GA with cooperation from WEC International and  William Carey Library, 798 pp.  A daily prayer calendar and indispensable guide to every country in the world.  Includes background facts about population, people, economics, politics, religions, churches, and prayer burdens for the church and country.

Best Missions Course

PERSPECTIVES ON THE WORLD CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT.  Since 1974, more than 70,000 believers in North America have experienced the Perspectives course. In 15 lessons, you’ll engage with a range of dynamic speakers. Weekly readings and study will help you dig even deeper. Join thousands of others in one of 200 locations.  www.perspectives.org

Best Periodicals for Missions Information

Missions Catalyst E-Magazine, a free, weekly electronic missions digest that includes missions news from around the world, practical ministry ideas, and helpful resources that will inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global minstry.  www.missioncatalyst.org

Brigada  World Christian Resources, Trends, & Challenges — all in a weekly (or so) e-zine from the U.S. Center for World Mission  www..brigada.org

MISSION FRONTIERS, by U.S. Center for World Mission, 1605 E. Elizabeth St., Pasadena, CA  91104    A bi-monthly publication with information about what God is doing through the church around the world, current missions trends and advances, books, and resources.  Paper version or Online. www.missionfrontiers.org

Best Missions Convention for College Students and Young Adults

Urbana STUDENT MISSIONS CONVENTION  For info, contact InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI  53707-7895  Tel: 608-274-9001  Since 1945 this triennial gathering has been one of the most effective conferences for challenging tens of thousands of Christian college students and others with the need to be active in world evangelization.  The most recent Urbana Conference was held December 27-31, 2009 in St. Louis, MO.  Next Urbana is scheduled for  2012.  Website: www.urbana.org

Best Inspiring Documentaries About Answered Prayer

            The Transformation Series of documentary videos, DVD’s, books and resources offer hope and expectancy as they report and analyze the patterns and principles involved at locations around the world that have experienced miraculous transformation as a result of strategic prayer. The Sentinel Group is a Christian research and information agency of cutting-edge researchers, filmmakers and ministers dedicated to the task of inspiring believers to take the steps necessary for God to heal their communities and nations.  www.glowtorch.org

Best Places to Buy Missions Books and Resources

YWAM Bookstore - Youth With A Mission offers an online source of Christian books and resources of all kinds. Excellent collection of children and young teen missionary biographies and adventure stories.  Many at a discount.  www.ywam.org/books

William Carey Library, part of the U.S. Center for World Missions, offers hundreds of titles at discount prices. Books, videos, curriculums, etc., can be purchased by phone at 1-8morebooks (1.866.732.6657) or online at http://missionbooks.org/

PIONEERS, 10123 William Carey Dr., Orlando, FL   32832-6931  Phone: 800-755-7284 or 407-382-6000  Pioneers equips the Church to complete the task of the Great Commission by taking the gospel to the least evangelized people groups in the world.  Pioneers offers excellent curricula, DVD, and other items for children and adults - connecting individuals, churches, and other ministries to these unreached peoples, most of whom live in what is termed the 10/40 Window. This region lies between the 10th and 40th degrees latitude and stretches from North Africa to Asia - home to most Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist populations and the poorest of the poor.  Pioneers also offers materials for equipping local churches to be more effectively engaged in missions.  Web: www.pioneers.org

Best Books for Building a Vision for Missions

These are timeless classics that belong in a church library or in the hands of your pastor and the missions committee.  This list is in alphabetical order.

A MIND FOR MISSIONS, by Paul Borthwick, NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO,  167 pp., 1987   Subtitled, “10 Ways to Build Your World Vision,” this book outlines the theory and practical how-to of changing a congregation’s focus on themselves to an awareness of the needs of others. Four other books by Paul Borthwick: Stop Witnessing and Start Loving,  Six Dangerous Questions, Missions: God’s Heart for the World, and How to be a World Class Christian

BECOMING A WORLD CHANGING CHURCH, by David Mays, ACMC, Orlando, FL, 30 pp., 2006   It is easy for a church’s missions vision to get fuzzy and start concentrating on secondary matters. This short book helps church leaders to focus on the purpose of missions and how to best be God’s instrument to change in the world.

The Church is Bigger Than You Think: Structures and Strategies for the Church of the 21st Century,  by Patrick Johnstone, Christian Focus Publications/WEC, Great Britain, 314 pp., 1998.  Lessons from the history of missions.  Johnstone points out how missions has been marginalized, and calls for denominations, churches, agencies, and seminaries to return to Jesus’ ministry model for finishing the Great Commission.

ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS, by Don Richardson, Revised 2006 , Regal Books, Gospel Light Publications, Ventura, CA, 223 pp. Wondering about the relationship of Christianity to other cultures and religions? This book has 26 incredible-but-true examples of how the concept of a Supreme God has existed for centuries in hundreds of cultures around the world and thus prepared for the Gospel message before it arrives.  The second half of the book details from Genesis to Revelation how God’s plan of redemption has been the same since the beginning.

FROM JERUSALEM TO IRIAN JAYA (revised), by Ruth A. Tucker, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI 528 pp., 2004  Interesting reading and impressively complete, this biographical history of 2,000 years of Christian missions covers the lives (successes and failures) of every major missionary from the Apostle Paul and the 1st Century church to Don Richardson and the modern missionary movement going to the utter most parts of the earth.  This revised edition has a special emphasis on the modern era, including chapters focused on the Muslim world, Third World missions, and a comparison of missions in Korea and Japan.

Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions (revised), by John Piper, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 256 pp., 2003   Challenges churches and individuals to have a God-centered vision for world evangelization as it examines the role of worship in missions as fuel and goal, the beginning and the end through biblical studies and contemporary events.

Missions Assessment Profile (MAP), ACMC, Orlando, FL, 11”x17” poster,  2005  Measure your church’s missions involvement with the yardsticks in ten key areas in this 3-page report card.  Web:  www.acmc.org

Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, 2nd Edition, by Stan Guthrie, Paternoster Press, Waynesboro, GA, 250 pp., 2004    Missions has changed since 9/11, 2001. This book charts 21 trends –both positive and negative–with continuing significance for the Great Commission community in the coming decades. The book offers insights to help grasp the big picture and take practical steps for more effective missions involvement.

  Missions in the 21st Century: Getting your Church into the Game, by Tom Telford with Lois Shaw, Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 171 pp., 1998.    Missions is best caught, not taught.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn how.  Lots of insight and ideas based on years of experience helping churches mobilize for missions.  Covers all the bases for church leaders, missions committees, and missionaries.

MISSIONS POLICY HANDBOOK, Third Edition, ACMC, Orlando, FL, 77pp.  Written guidelines help a missions committee keep their outreach target in sight, train new members, and make decisions based on consistent criteria.  This workbook makes the job of creating one much easier by outlining the possibilities in over 60 issues and topics which could be part of a church’s missions policy.

PEACE CHILD, by Don Richardson, Regal Books, Ventura, CA, 288 pp., 1976   A gripping account of how the true peace of Christ captured the hearts of the Sawi, a stone age, cannibalistic headhunter tribe in Irian Jaya.

PERSPECTIVES ON THE WORLD CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT, A Reader, Third Edition, edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, William Carey Library, Pasadena, CA  ,782 pp., 1999    This is a multi-faceted collection of articles by over 70 authors which focus on the Biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic dimensions of the task of world evangelization.

SERVING AS SENDERS, by Neal Pirolo, Emmaus Road International, San Diego, CA  207 pp., 1991   A guide for those who are called to stay home.  This book outlines the importance of the homebase part of the cross-cultural team and offers 6 ways to care for your missionaries while they are preparing to go, while they are on the field, and when they return home.

Taking Our Cities for God: How to Break Spiritual Strongholds, by John Dawson, Creation House, Altamonte Springs, FL,  219 pp., 1989  A handbook that no only provides the teaching on praying strategically for your city,  but offers inspiring examples of God’s actions, and practical suggestions for understanding and changing a region’s spiritual dynamics.

TODAY’S ALL-STAR MISSIONS CHURCHES: Strategies to Help Your Church Get Into the Game, by Tom Telford with Lois Shaw, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 173 pp, 2001  Here is a list of real congregations with highly effective missions programs along with Tom Telford’s practical suggestions on how your church can implement their ideas.