Philippine Missions Association

Let's Prioritize Missions Mobilization

jsyyap@gmail.com (Joel Syyap) — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:51:49 +0000

Let’s prioritize Missions Mobilization

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38)

What should be our priority agenda towards the year 2020? May I suggest that Filipino Christians should focus on Missions Mobilization -- training and sending 1,000,000 tentmakers (self-supporting missionaries) by 2020. Besides the obvious biblical rationale that this is the priority of God (God wants all people saved! 2 Pet.3:8-9; 1 Tim.2:3-5), there are 3 historically important reasons why we must emphasize cross-cultural missions today.

1. Not much is left to be done for national transformation. If the past 10 years is a measure, the evangelization

Christmas Newsletter 2011

cmiphil53@yahoo.com (David S. Lim, Ph.D.) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

To my dearest friends,

A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR to you! May this letter find you in the best of health, physically, financially and spiritually, as we end one more year in this fast-changing world! In this past year, the Arab world tasted political freedom, and most countries in Asia (esp. China & India – the 2 largest nations in the world) continue to prosper, while the West and Japan continue to struggle economically. For Filipinos, it feels good to truly celebrate this season with hope for a better year ahead with a highly popular regime (in spite the tragic floods caused by typhoons Juaning, Pedring, and lately Sendong in northern Mindanao this past week)! We learned to love football, and rejoice that justice has begun to truly prevail in our land! We can heartily sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come,” for His love is being realized among us (“Emmanuel”)!

As we enter the 2^nd year of the 2^nd decade of

Praying That Result in Transformation and Mission

lenjoson@gmail.com (David S. Lim, Ph.D.) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:41:33 +0000

Prayer is the essential foundation for Christian life and witness in the world. It is basic to spiritual maturity, church growth, mission mobilization and societal transformation. Prayer is necessary but not sufficient.

In spite the multiplication of prayer movements and prayer congresses in the past 20 years, there seem to be hardly any change in the moral quality of societies and spiritual revival of churches. Why is this so? It seems that there is a tragic misunderstanding of prayer and hence also faulty practice of it. It repeats the problem of Old Testament (OT) Israel where the prophets had to remind the people of God repeatedly that God prefers less religion and more transformation. God desires not more religious services but more

Why Local Churches Hinder Real Church Growth

lenjoson@gmail.com (David S. Lim, Ph.D.) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:06:39 +0000

Global Christianity has unwittingly fallen into a trap, which is historically known as “the Babylonian captivity of the church.” Thinking that this will result in better church growth, Christian leaders have been promoting “the local church is the base for ministry and/or world evangelization.” By “local church” is meant a congregation that seeks to have a full-time pastor (and a pastoral staff as it grows bigger) and her own sanctuary (ideally bought and owned rather than rented), in order to attract and maintain an ever-increasing attendance in her weekly Sunday worship services.

Though this looks appealing (and not many have seriously questioned this tradition), it has been a self-defeating (and historically, quite self-destructive) trap: for the maintenance mode of local churches have almost always killed (often sooner than later) the mission mode of the (whole) church! A lot of Christian resources become absorbed into the maintenance of church activities (e.g., evangelistic rallies, Sunday Schools, youth camps, mission conferences, building projects, etc. etc.) for nominal believers who offer to God (often hypocritically!) what are conveniently “extras” from the “abundant blessings” that He provides in their middle class “comfort zones”! Usually only a pittance (ever calculated the percentage of church budgets that really go into missions?)

Towards Closure: Imperial or Incarnational Missions?

lenjoson@gmail.com (David S. Lim, Ph.D.) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:07:44 +0000

Is it possible to finish the Great Commission or reach all the unreached people groups (UPG) in the world by our generation, let’s say by AD2025?

The AD 2000 Movement envisioned this “closure” when they convened the Global Congress on World Evangelization (GCOWE) in 1995 in Seoul, Korea. At that time, I predicted that it was “Mission Impossible,” because almost all of the participants still used the traditional mission paradigm to extend Christendom through what I called “imperial (or denominational) missions,” instead of “incarnational (or integral or transformational) missions.” If we do not make this missional paradigm shift, I’m afraid I’ve to also repeat my pessimism that it’s “Mission Impossible” by 2025. As Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Yet I believe “closure in 10-15 years” can be “Mission Possible” – if, by the mercy of God, the mainstream of missions shifts into “incarnational missions” immediately. All of us who share the passion to win the lost