June 18, 2025

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Church

Church, Books, Resources, Training, Book Reviews, Pre-field Training

Book Review: Well Sent

I have frequently been asked about resources for local church missions programs. In 2015, Steve Beirn, Global Ministries Pastor at Calvary Church in Lancaster, PA, published Well Sent: Reimaging the Church’s Missionary-Sending Process. Steve served at our sending church in Holland, Michigan before going to Calvary so I know him well. He writes with passion and experience. In the introduction he writes:             This book seeks to elevate the role of the local church in the sending effort. The trend in missions today is to place the individual at the center of the sending process. Sometimes the agency is placed at the center. This book places the local church at the center of the sending process. – Well Sent, p. 17.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Books, Disciple-making, Book Reviews, Pre-field Training, Church

The Vine Project: A review

Jesus told us to go and disciple all nations. That means that those of us who have been called and sent are to be disciplemakers who equip others to be disciplemakers as well. The question that I have been asking myself recently is, “Are the sending and training structures that we have established to help get people to the nations effective in equipping them to be disciplemakers?”  We train people to raise their support, learn and adjust to a new culture, learn to speak a new language, prepare for various security risks, educate their children, and get along with their teammates – but are they learning to become disciplemakers? I read The Trellis and the Vine a number of years ago. This short book differentiated between the work of actually discipling people from the work of creating and maintaining the structures and programs that support this disciplemaking.  The… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Teaching is a Spiritual Gift
Training, Church

Teaching is a Spiritual Gift

The Bible is clear and understandable. Anyone can understand it. [For a helpful discussion on the clarity of the Bible see Wayne Grudem, “The Perspicuity of Scripture,” Themelios 34:3 (2009): 288-308]. All believers ought to study the Bible so that the word richly dwells within them. The Berean Jews were commended for examining the Scriptures to see if Paul’s teaching was true (Acts 17:11). All believers are charged to teach and admonish one another (Colossians 3:16). But do all these truths mean we don’t need teachers? Apparently the Holy Spirit did not think so, because one of the gifts to the church is teaching.… 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
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