July 26, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Year: 2014

Church Planting, Disciple-making, Book Reviews, Leadership Training

Are We Reading All of Matthew 28:18-20?

A review of M. David Sills, Reaching and Teaching: a Call to Great Commission Obedience, Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2010. This book has sought to bring awareness to those who have been lulled into thinking that God wants us to simply reach them. He doesn’t. He wants us to reach and teach – reaching them with the saving gospel message and teaching them to observe everything that He has commanded. (220). So ends Sills’ book.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Spiritual Formation, Training

Accountability – Asking the Hard Questions

Do you have anyone in your life who asks the hard questions? You know, the ones like “How are you doing in using your time wisely?” Or “How are you doing as a wife/ husband/ parent/ leader/ follower?” Or just the simple yet profound “How are you doing spiritually?” For some reason, we have such a hard time asking those questions, and yet I think a lot of us need and even long for that kind of interaction. Let me get personal and real here. I haven’t REALLY felt spiritually healthy for many years now. I’ve had a few bright spots over the years, and am confident God hasn’t given up on me. Yet I would have to say that “listless,” “wilting on the vine” and even “helpless and hopeless” describe how I have felt about my walk with God over the past decade.… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Cross-Cultural Living, Christ

Sent Like Jesus

John 17:18, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (ESV) John 20:21, “Peace be with you, As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (ESV) Often in mission circles these verses launch us into a discussion of “incarnational missions” focusing on servanthood and contextualization. Both are clearly important for missions. Yet is that the extent of how our mission compares to the mission of Jesus? Are those issues in Jesus’ mind when he makes these statements?… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Spiritual Formation, Book Reviews

Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People So That You Experience “The Life You’ve Always Wanted”

As a SEND missionary, do you ever feel lagging in spiritual power or genuine transformation? How about those you have the privilege of leading to Christ or discipling – do you observe them experiencing consistent growth into Christ-likeness? If you’re feeling discouraged in either of these areas, I encourage you to read John Ortberg’s book The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. It provides a fresh, practical, and biblical challenge towards growing in Christ-likeness through the practice of spiritual disciplines. A sad commentary on the state of today’s church is that “by and large we do not expect people to experience ongoing transformation.” Ortberg however believes that genuine transformation — being changed into Christ-likeness — should be the norm for Christian life. A problem often occurs, though, in that believers who desire transformation try harder and harder until they are exhausted but still not experiencing the transformation… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Disciple-making

I Need to Disciple Interns

The following post was written by Brett Hamilton, a SEND missionary in Poland. It is an excellent example of the commitment we seek to foster in our senior missionaries to serve as mentors for new missionaries. Having served in Poland for over 20 years, I see that there are stages that I have gone through in my thoughts as to focus and priority of ministry. In the first decade of ministry on the field, I was focused on “reaching” a national population, in our case Polish. We focused very sharply in learning the language and did not go out of our way to build relationships with non-Polish people. After all, that’s who we were sent to serve.… Read the whole post
Brett Hamilton1 min read
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