LESSONS FROM 1ST MILLENNIUM TRADING CENTER
Trading Centers: Hubs for Outreach
During the first millennium, the spread of Christianity by the Church of the East started from major trading centers that were cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural communities. With the coexistence and confluence of languages, ideas and religions, people were more open- minded, less tied to any set of traditions or beliefs.
Along the ancient Silk Road, everyone needed a socially understandable identity to not only travel but settle down. As now so then, merchants could go anywhere and be welcomed. Furthermore, trade funded their travels.
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REACHING EMERGING TECH CAPITALS
Reaching Emerging Tech Capitals for the 10/40 Window
Business As Missions (BAM) is the cutting edge of the worldwide missions movement and becoming increasingly important as the least reached nations become harder and harder to access.
Closed & Open Doors
For years, the countries where the gospel is most needed have been closed to traditional missionaries. Many have therefore gone out as NGO workers in education, humanitarian service or community development. However, in recent years, the doors to NGOs are also closing.
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ABOUT LANGUAGE STUDY
You may survive speaking only English in China because many Chinese people understand some English. Friends can also help in the short term. If you are going to live and serve long term, however, then there are at least three reasons for language study beyond communicating basic needs.
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ABOUT CONTINUING EDUCATION
Have you watched how a car makes a pit stop in races? Whether for fuel or fixes, pit stops are necessary, especially in long races. The timing of those stops is part of the overall strategy for winning. Otherwise, the driver may lose momentum, get sidetracked or derailed, and forfeit the race.
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ABOUT DATING & MARRIAGE
Dear GoLiveServe,
Recently I started dating someone that I met at a Christian conference. We seem to have so much in common. He may be the one, but how can I be sure when I am not even sure about how my career and China will play out? What should I look out for?
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ABOUT CAREER DEVELOPMENT
A bright young woman, Stephanie is seeking God’s will for her career and future. She started exploring her calling to China when she joined our summer study abroad program as a junior in college. Now that she is graduating, she has to decide how to seek first the kingdom of God.
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ABOUT PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS
Dear GoLiveServe,
At Urbana, I felt God’s call to go to China. I just got my masters degree in teaching. My job prospects here are good because I am in a high-need area; therefore, my parents want me to stay in the U.S. How do I honor my parents and still be obedient to God?
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UNDERSTANDING OUR TIMES
Every day we read disturbing headlines from around the world: radical factions escalating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from both sides; IS jihadists massacring Christians in Iraq; Islamic terrorists kidnapping school girls in Nigeria; militant Buddhists persecuting Muslims in Myanmar; the government taking down crosses from church buildings in China … and the list goes on.
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WHAT THE CHURCH IN CHINA NEEDS & HOW GLS WORKERS RESPOND
Recently, the Chinese government is further tightening its control around the country. As churches prepare for the challenges ahead, it is important for us to know how the leaders see their needs, irrespective of the political pendulum swing that occurs from time to time.
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AFTER THE ALTAR CALL: WHAT NEXT?
So you have heard the opportunity and challenge of tentmaking missions. You realize that God may be calling you. You know it is time to take action or at least to seriously explore. But where do you begin?
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TENTMAKERS & GLOBAL URBAN MISSIONS
At the 2010 Lausanne III, Tim Keller of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church made a case that if Christians want to reach the world, they must reach the cities. Christianity won the 1st century Greco-Roman world because it won the cities. Today, half the world’s population is urban.
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CHINA & THE MUSLIM WORLD: FROM CHAOS TO THE CROSS
Since the Arab Spring more than two years ago, the Muslim world continues to make headlines—civil war in Syria, violence and bloodshed in Egypt, continued unrest in Tunisia and Libya, unrelenting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan even as the U.S. and her allies struggle to pull out. Large populations of displaced refugees now threaten the stability of neighboring countries. As age-old sectarian and tribal hatreds rage across the region, one CNN journalist sadly concluded that there seems little that outsiders can do but wait for the volcano to finish erupting.
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THE CHALLENGE OF RECONCILIATION FOR THE WORLD IN 2015
On Feb 15, the video titled “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nations of the Cross” went viral. 21 Coptic Christian migrant workers from Egypt were led like sheep along the Mediterranean coast of Libya by masked terrorists. They lined them up along the beach, forced them on their knees, and beheaded them. This was supposedly IS’ revenge for the alleged kidnap and torture by the Coptic Church of two Egyptian Christian women who had converted to Islam, a claim denied by those involved in the story.
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CHINA’S RELIGIOUS POLICY: A BALANCING ACT
For over a year, many are speculating on what Beijing would do with China’s Christian movement as the Zhejiang provincial government continues to take down crosses from church buildings—over a thousand by now, and counting. There are also reports of increased suppression of church activities in other provinces. Is this part of a systematic ideological tightening across the country that may step up in the days ahead?
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RAISING & SENDING WORKERS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE LOCAL CHURCH
GLS strives to realize its vision for missions mobilization in partnership with churches: For every tentmaker we send out in partnership with a church, we hope to work with the candidate and his church to raise up several others to take his place locally.
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DIAOYU-SENKAKU ISLANDS DISPUTE: HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH CHINESE FRIENDS
September 11, Japan announced plans to “nationalize” three islands that are part of the Diaoyu-Senkaku territorial dispute with China since 1971. This came one week before the 81st anniversary of Japan’s occupation of N.E. China in 1931, which was the first step to full-scale invasion of the country as part of WWII in Asia. In terms of cultural trauma for a nation, 9-18 to the Chinese is what 9-11 is to Americans.
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A CALL TO BEEs: BABY BOOMERS, EMPTY NESTERS AND EARLY RETIREES
It has been said that the graying of America is a God-ordained phenomenon unique in the history of the world and of the church. Never before has any country had so many retirees who are Christian and suited to invest their best years to make strategic and meaningful contributions to God’s kingdom around the world, especially in tentmaking missions. The same is true for Canada where social benefits are excellent and the Canadian dollar is getting stronger all the time.
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REALITIES OF SERVING OVERSEAS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
In the old days, “going overseas to save the lost” might simply mean putting our careers “on the altar” and going to seminary to study the Bible so we could preach to the heathens.
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GETTING THE RIGHT JOBS OVERSEAS
If career is an integral part of a tentmaker’s life and witness, and not just a “passport” to get to the field or a “platform” for ministry, then getting the right job is important. But what constitutes the right job? How do you find that job overseas?
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THE QUADRUPLE BOTTOMLINE OF MISSIONAL BUSINESS
Is it possible to have a profitable and missional business that creates jobs for the poor in an emerging economy using sustainable local materials to produce well-designed products for environmentally aware customers in the West? … The Quadruple Bottom Line of Business as Mission (BAM) aims at holistic witness to the Gospel that brings about economic, social, environmental and spiritual transformation to bless the unreached …
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