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Showing posts from May, 2014

Issues Facing Missions Today: 14 ‘We Have Stopped Supporting Your Ministry’

Issues Facing Missions Today: 14 ‘We Have Stopped Supporting Your Ministry’                                                                                                                                                                                                       1 December, AD 51 Dear Paul, Silas, and Timothy, Greetings from Antioch.  We trust you are well and that your ministry in Corinth is also continuing well.  Our mission committee met last week to discuss your work, and we have decided to discontinue the annual support that we have been sending for your ministry.  You are probably wondering what led us to this decision, and so here are ten of our primary concerns. First, of the three of you, only Paul was originally sent out from this church.  Silas is from Jerusalem, and Timothy is from Lystra.  Our policy is to support missionaries who come from Antioch.  Also, our policy is to support our missionaries at 5% of their total support needs, and we expec

Why Foreign Missions? 20n Paul's Mission or Affliction Catalogues: The Content of the Gospel and the Character of Mission

Why Foreign Missions?  20n Paul's Mission or Affliction Catalogues: The Content of the Gospel and the Character of Mission [1] Paul characterises his mission several times in 'mission catalogues': 1 Cor. 4.9-13; 2 Cor. 4.8f; 6.3-10; 11.23-33; 12.10; Rom. 8.35; Phl. 4.11-13; 2 Tim. 3.10-11.  These passages have several things in common and, in particular, they describe the hardships that he faces because of his mission work.  So, from these texts we can discover something of Paul's view of suffering and self-denial, particularly as it relates to Christian mission.  While parallels may be found in other literature of the time both rhetorically and in substance, these passages offer a different view of suffering.  For Paul, suffering is negative, and yet in the apostle's weaknesses the positive side of the situation emerges, for God's strength is manifest through them. [2]   And such a theology accounts for the earnest efforts that characterize Paul's miss