January 24, 2025

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Evangelism

Plans that seem like nothing
Church Planting, Leadership, Evangelism

Plans that seem like nothing

It is that time of year again, when we are asked to develop annual ministry plans for the coming year. We dream about what we would like to see happen in 2017 – and then we face the reality of our limited financial and people resources.  We do not want to discount what God can do, and so we seek to set goals that call for faith and utter dependence upon God. But we are also told to make sure that our annual goals are SMART: S – Strategic (How clearly does it propel our vision forward?) M – Measurable (How will we know when we have completed the goal?) A – Ambitious (a faith-stretch) (Does it require us to depend on God?) R – Realistic (Do we have at least a rough idea for how we could work towards accomplishing it?) T – Time-bound (Have we determined a deadline… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Evangelism, Missiological Issues, Missiology, Book Reviews

Review of “Controversies in Mission: Theology, People, and Practice in the 21st Century”

The Evangelical Missiological Society’s 2016 volume, Controversies in Mission, edited by Rochelle Cathcart Scheuerman and Edward L. Smithers contains papers from the 2015 Regional Meetings and National Conference. The book is divided into four parts: Part One, Biblical Perspectives and the Theology of Mission Part Two, The People of Mission Part Three, The Practice of Mission Part Four, Historical and Future Perspectives.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Meditation on the Church
Theology, Doctrinal Statement, Evangelism, Church

Meditation on the Church

The church is important. In Christ and Culture Revisited, D.A. Carson writes, We need to be reminded that the only human organization that continues into eternity is the church. (217). This statement, made somewhat in passing, highlights the importance of the church. The seventh part of SEND’s Statement of Faith is: We believe that the church is the body of Jesus Christ, for which He will return, consisting of all who have accepted the redemption provided by Him. Throughout this series of blog posts on our Statement of Faith we have been asking the basic question, “How does this statement hold us?” We continue with these thoughts on the church.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Book Reviews, Evangelism

Developing the Art of Conversational Evangelism

I found David and Norman Geisler’s book, Conversational Evangelism: Connecting with People to Share Jesus while doing some reading on contextualization.   I thought it would be interesting combining Norman Geisler’s expertise in apologetics and his son, David’s experience on college campuses and 7 years serving in Singapore. I was not disappointed. This is a very helpful book. Similar in some ways to Randy Newman’s book, Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did, the Geislers’ book has more emphasis on worldviews and apologetics. The first chapter, “The Need for Pre-Evangelism in a Postmodern World”, makes the point that evangelism is a process. Then chapter 2 introduces the model with four types of conversations: “Hearing Conversations, Illuminating Conversations, Uncovering Conversations, and Building Conversations”.  The Geislers relate these conversations to four roles we play:    … Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
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