1) Catch a One-week “Engaging Islam” Course in Dearborn, Michigan
2) What’s the Most Useful App for Sharing Good News?
What apps have you come to appreciate most for assisting in sharing the Good News? We know of a couple. The Discover App (search Discover Bible in your app store) helps you facilitate discovery Bible studies, which can, in turn, be very useful in launching a disciple-making movement (DMM). It makes the Bible more accessible in English, Arabic, Somali, Dari, Pashto, Indonesian and Uyghur (Turkish, Urdu, Spanish and Swahili are all coming). Learn more at https://discoverapp.org/ . There’s also the M28 Global Discipleship App http://www.m28global.org/mobile-app.html. It helps prompt users in “God’s Story” passages, complete with response features. Now there’s also an app for Zume. Just click to https://zume.training/app. Zume has already helped train hundreds of groups full of thousands of believers in the principles and strategies of launching disciple-making movements. What other apps do you like?
3) Improve Your Storytelling Skills With a Mentor
Learn with your team, online, and imagine the impact of a better-communicated message – whether your story is oral, written, or filmed. Introduction to Story in Ministry starts February 19. Qualifying students are eligible for a one-third tuition discount in a Masters or PhD program at Biola University’s Cook School of Intercultural Studies. For course details, instructor bios, and comments from previous students visit http://www.missionmediau.org/courses/story-in-ministry/.
4) Unpacking Contemporary Narratives about the Church in China
ChinaSource will be hosting a webinar presented by Dr. Brent Fulton, ChinaSource Founder and author of “China’s Urban Christians: A Light that Cannot be Hidden.” The webinar will explore four narratives about the church in China that have dominated Western Christian perceptions over the past four decades. It’s coming up on February 10 at 7-8PM US Central time. The cost is just $10.00. Find more info and registration at https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/webinars/our-china-stories.
5) Stuck in a Language-Learning Rut With your Children?
This invaluable online course is for you. Taught by Elaine, a mother/grandma who raised bilingual TCKs and trained in speech pathology and relational parenting, this training shows you how to help your children thrive in a new language environment. You can watch a free 20-min preview, read testimonials, and buy the course at
https://languagelearningforchildren.teachable.com/p/building-a-multilingual-home . The first fifty Brigada readers get 50% off before 4/1/20. Use code “BRIGADA50” at checkout.
6) On-mission: For Missio Nexus, It’s the Most Popular Event of the Year
Each year, Missio Nexus stages a free virtual conference designed for Church Mission Leaders and Mission Organization Leaders. Interestingly, they say it’s their most popular event in the world. This year’s topic will be mobilization. The date is Wednesday, March 11, at 12 noon Eastern time. They’re planning the conference to run around 3 hours. Here’s the deal: Gang. It’s free. Now maybe you’ve never taken in a Missio Nexus event because you thought you had to pay some kind of fee. But there will likely be HUNDREDS of people (maybe more?) participating in this event. It’s going to be big. And here’s your chance to sit in on a Missio Nexus event for absolutely, positively free. And get this — you can join this event from anywhere in the world. To learn more, just visit https://missionexus.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0bcf05b0afce8194e4d08e494&id=8c710e305c . By the way, you’ll likely need a sustained available download speed of 3.5 Mbps or greater.
7) What’s Your Favorite International Carry-On?
The question came today, “What size carry-on is the best for a mission trip?” Although you might be tempted to answer, “The biggest one you can find,” (ha-ha), seriously… what’s your favorite carry-on for missions trips and international travel? For us, nothing beats a backpack. And if you’ve got some sensitive camera gear and a laptop, nothing beats the LowePro ProTactic BP450 AW II. The large inner cavity holds a ton of gear and LowePro gives a generous supply (never enough) of padded velcro dividers to customize the bag to your liking. But for rollerboards, Wow — there must be a thousand favorite designs. How would you respond? Size-wise, can we all agree 21x13x9 is the safest size? (Please go measure yours and comment below.) Got a favorite brand you can recommend to others? I (Doug) have ended up with Briggs and Reilly, mainly because my son sold me on the “guaranteed for life” replacement deal. They have a greater “carry-on finder” at https://www.briggs-riley.com/pages/gudelines-buildershopping-helper . But what’s YOUR fave?
8) Engage the Unreached on Social Media – Online Course
Mission Media U (MMU) is an online learning platform designed to train Christians to be more effective in making disciples and establishing churches. Their course, “Foundations of Media to Movements,” is starting February 13 and running through March 12. Each week in the 5-week course requires 3 hours of work per week including a one-hour live instruction session. For more information, go to http://www.missionmediau.org/courses/foundations-of-media-strategy/.
9) What’s Your Favorite Mission Trip Software?
This past week, we received a note from Joe, a faithful Brigada participant, who was wondering what’s the best overall software to short-term mission trip teams. Would you rather have Managed Missions ( http://www.managedmissions.com/ ) or MissionMakr ( https://missionmakr.com/ )??? Has anyone tried Mission Minder ( https://missionminder.com/ ) or Pure Charity? ( https://go.purecharity.com/trip-management-and-fundraising/ )? What’s your fave and why? Just click “Comment” below and share your opinion. You can share anonymously if you prefer.
10) The Last Bit: Did Roland Allen Really Tell This Story?
There’s a fairly popular sermon illustration making the rounds these days that holds that Roland Allen loved to tell a story about a man who came up to him after a sermon. According to the sermon illustration, “The missionary introduced himself & said, ‘I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured.’ But this missionary had developed a process that would arrest progressive blindness. So people came to him & he performed his operation, & they would leave realizing that they would have become blind, but now they were going to be able to see for the rest of their lives. There was just one particular thing about the language the people spoke. According to the illustration, the people never said, “Thank you,” because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, “I will tell your name.” Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it far and wide — and when they did, they always told the name of this particular medical missionary.
So our first question is — did Roland Allen really tell this story and how do we know this? Is it found in one of his books somewhere (because we can’t find it).
But we suppose, either way, it’s a great story. And it indeed sounds tellable. Obviously, the metaphorical illustration is that Jesus does something similar for us. We invite him into our lives, he cures us of brokenness, restores our hearts, and forevermore — we “tell His name” to the world. What a great reason to live. It’s a purpose worth living for. In fact, it would be a purpose worth giving our lives for. (Now if we can just verify that Roland Allen told it. : ) )
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