Just wanted to pass on a great deal. Christian Audio is offering the ESV Audio Bible for download absolutely free the rest of this month. You can get it here.
Category: Uncategorized
Missions Focus: PIEI
Today I want to draw your attention to Partners in Evangelism International (PIEI). This missions group focuses on partnering national pastor/missionaries from other countries with American churches. Each country ministry has its own steering committee of nationals and Americans with its own distinctions. While I can’t speak for most of the ministries, I can heartily recommend the Romanian and Ukrainian ministries. Our church started partnering with a national pastor/missionary family in the Ukraine a couple of years ago, and it has been a wonderful partnership. Some things we really appreciate:
• We get a monthly report that gives us an update on their ministry and ways we can pray for them. It is really exciting to regularly hear what God is doing in the Ukraine, and to be able to partner with them in prayer.
• Nationals often need significantly less support than Americans. That doesn’t mean Americans don’t need to be missionaries – they do. But training and supporting nationals to do the ministry should be part of our overall Great Commission strategy. And as a small church with a small missions budget, our small gift goes a long way.
• PIEI doesn’t have a paid home office. Everyone is a volunteer. This approach is not for every agency, and it does create its own issues, but our church appreciates that all the money we give goes overseas.
• We are also encouraged to go overseas to minister with the nationals. Our church hasn’t made use of this opportunity yet, but I look forward to taking a group sometime in the future.
Cornel Stef, who leads the Romanian/Ukrainian ministry on the American side, has come to our church twice to share about the ministry. He and his wife even hosted my family for lunch when we were down in Chicago just over a year ago. In his last visit this Fall, he mentioned the need for new American churches to support nationals in the Ukraine. Some nationals currently in ministry are not at full support, and others have been trained for ministry but are unable to serve without support. If your church is looking to expand its missions program and enter into an exciting partnership overseas, I encourage you to contact Cornel – cstef@piei.org.
Operation Christmas Child
My family and church have been packing boxes for a few years now. My family goes to the stores together, and each of our children packs a box for a child their own age. It makes for a great family outing and is a great way to get children involved in giving. And of course, it can be a huge blessing to the child who receives the box – and even provides an opportunity for the child to learn about Jesus. Great family or church project!
Missions Focus – SGA
My goal on Fridays is to focus on missions. I might highlight a missions group, book, quote, or a collection of posts.
Today I want to focus on Slavic Gospel Association (SGA). Eric Mock, one of their guest speakers, came to my church a few weeks ago. We were very impressed with the ministry.
SGA has been assisting the church in the former Soviet Union countries since 1934. During the years of communism, SGA covertly distributed millions of Bibles and Christian books under the Iron Curtain into the hands of believers throughout the Soviet Union, while producing and broadcasting thousands of Christian radio programs over the Iron Curtain.
SGA’s founder Peter Deyneka traveled the globe holding prayer meetings, often overnight, encouraging the Lord’s people to pray for the opening of the Soviet Union for the preaching of the Gospel. His motto became, “Much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. No prayer, no power!”
Today, SGA assists the church in the former Soviet Union countries in many ways. They sponsor national pastor/missionary/church-planters. They help to support several Bible institutes and seminaries to train new leaders. They have help to support numerous children’s ministries including Orphans Reborn, Immanuel’s Child, and Summer Camp. They help to equip youth for ministry. They help translate good Christian books.
They have many resources to communicate to the American church what God is doing in the former Soviet Union countries including a monthly update and prayer guide.
One free resource every church should check out is called My Mission Adventure, two 5-week missions studies for children. With DVDs, a leader’s guide, activity sheets, and more, it teaches the children about Russia and about how they can be part of reaching people for Christ right where they are. Children also have the opportunity to learn songs in Russian. My church took our children through the first study and the kids loved it. We plan to do the next one soon.
Since taking a trip to the Ukraine 15 years ago, I have always had a heart for the people there. I am excited to begin supporting SGA as they help our brothers and sisters in Christ in the former Soviet Union countries. Their website is here. Check it out – maybe God would lead you invite them to your church or help support the ministry in some way.
And We’re Back!
The blog break is over and I’m back with some new ideas for the coming months.
I am planning some new weekly features including Ministry Monday – a collection of posts on ministry, and Missions Moment – featuring missions quotes, posts, and groups. Plus hopefully some more regular reflections on the Christian life. Monday mornings will feature pictures and songs to start our week with praise.
Passion News will become Passion Ethics – a focus on ethical issues we are facing today. And we will continue to have the Prayer Quote of the Week and Passion Points.
So welcome back. I’m looking forward to a great Fall. Please feel free to leave a comment or suggestion.
Blog Break
Time for my annual break from blogging. In the meantime, here are the three top posts so far from 2013:
Plus a few you may have missed:
See you in September!
Sola 13
If you live in Michigan or nearby, you may want to be aware of the Sola 13 conference coming up. Here is the description from their website:
Sola Fide! Sola Scriptura! Solus Christus! Sola Gratia! Soli Deo Gloria! These five Latin phrases articulated the foundation of the Reformation and a call for the church to remember the heart of our faith. On December 6th and 7th in Lansing, Michigan we will once again celebrate and promote these cries of the Reformation.
Join with us as we are encouraged by some of our dear friends (John Piper, Matt Chandler, Albert Mohler, Stephen Um, Leonce Crump, Kevin DeYoung, and Noel Heikkinen) in the foundational truth that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone, standing on the Scriptures alone.
Early bird tickets are $45 through the end of the month. For more details, check out their site.
Westminster Books
A few months ago, I said that I was going to start highlighting some helpful resources that you might be interested in. I managed to recommend one resource, and then never continued. I want to try to start again – this time recommending an online bookstore called Westminster Bookstore. I found out about them from some other blogs. Westminster features Reformed books and resources, including a lot of historical books from the Puritans. They also have Bibles, commentaries, church ministry books, curriculum, children’s books, and more. It is a fun site to explore. Plus they often have incredible specials on new books coming out – you can sign up to get their weekly newsletter. John Piper’s Desiring God ministry recently closed their online store and you can find all of Desiring God’s books and curriculum now at Westminster. They also offer free shipping on orders over $49. You can follow the link below, or the link I just added to the side bar. Disclaimer: I am a Westminster blog partner and get referral credit if you follow these links – think of it as supporting this blog.
Vote and Pray
God has given us an incredible opportunity that few people in the history of our world have ever had. We have the opportunity to vote for our leaders. Tomorrow we each get one ballot to choose who we want to be our leaders for the next few years. We must be good stewards of this opportunity God has given us.
To be good stewards, we must vote. To stay home tomorrow is to follow the example of the wicked servant who refused to use the one talent given to him. He buried it in the ground instead, and was strongly condemned (Matthew 25:14-30).
To be good stewards, we must vote for a candidate who has a chance of winning. In the presidential race, that means we must vote for Romney or Obama. To vote for anyone else is to waste your vote, to bury it in the ground. It would be like going to a casino and playing a game with absolute 0% chance of winning. Your chances at a casino are never good, but playing with 0% chance of winning is utter foolishness. So is voting for someone who has no chance of winning. You may not like either candidate, but one of them is going to win, so vote for the better of the two.
To be good stewards, we must vote wisely by weighing the issues. We must weigh the economic issues. We must weigh the foreign policy issues. We must weigh the moral issues:
- What is the candidate’s stand on same-sex marriage? (See a discussion here)
- What is the candidate’s stand on abortion which has killed 50+ million babies in almost 40 years?
- What is the candidate’s stand on the current administration’s policy requiring even religious non-profits to pay for insurance that will pay for their employees to buy abortion-inducing contraceptives. Will the candidate stand for religious freedom and against this religious persecution?
To be good stewards, we must weigh the issues, and then vote accordingly. We must vote wisely.
For further thoughts on why you need to vote tomorrow, see Joel Beeke’s helpful post.
But we must do more than vote. We must also pray. This too is an incredible opportunity that God has given to us. We must be good stewards of this opportunity and cry out to God on behalf of our nation. I could elaborate on this point, but instead I suggest you go to Albert Mohler’s post and use it as a guide for your prayers.
Vote and pray. May we be good stewards of both opportunities tomorrow.
Brian J. Mikul 