Ultimately in Lord of the Rings the power of evil is not destroyed by any army. It is not destroyed by military power or human strength. ‘All our hopes,’ says Gandalf at one point, ‘lie with two little hobbits somewhere in the wilderness’. Frodo and Sam enter Mordor...
Here is the fourth part of my course preparing people for cross-cultural mission. What do you think you will miss most? friends and family home comforts familiarity (e.g. favourite foods) entertainment a professional environment Christian community corporate worship and...
Here is the third part of my course preparing people for cross-cultural mission. (Here are parts one and two.) God is great What are the worries you have about doing mission in another culture? The refrain we kept repeating when I visited missionaries in the Middle-East was: ‘fallen...
We live in a time when nothing is worth living for and certainly nothing is worth dying for. Everything is relative. There are no absolutes, no great truths, no heroic causes. Part of the appeal of Lord of the Rings is that it contains a sense of moral purpose. It is a world of valour...
Here is the second part of my course preparing people for cross-cultural mission. God is glorious You are going to be very conscious of what other people think about you. Your fellow team members Do they think you are competent? What are they making of your progress? How do they...
I recently ran a short preparation course for people about to go out as cross-cultural missionaries. We looked at some standard material on culture and contextualization. But half the course was based on a conversation with a missionary we have sent to the Middle-East. As we talked about...