The Mission Matters

Jeff Lewis joins Matthew Ellison and Ted Esler to talk about missions, revival, and what we can learn from the life of Nikolaus von Zinzendorf. Jeff dispels some of the common myths surrounding Zinzendorf and the Moravians, and shares what he has learned from studying early Moravian primary source materials. They discuss the role revivals play in advancing missions, and what true awakening looks like. 

Business As Mission (BAM) is frequently being hailed as the new method of missions funding. Does that mean the era of support raising is over? Or is there space for multiple models of funding to meet the needs of different contexts? Matthew Ellison and Ted Esler talk with Mark Wilson of VIA Generosity (formerly Support Raising Solutions) as he shares his perspectives of how God is using support raising, particularly to resource workers in the Global South. 

“Kingdom Collaboration” is a special episode for us, because we are co-hosting it with the National Association of Evangelicals podcast, Today’s Conversation. Ted Esler and Matthew Ellison teamed up with Walter Kim of the NAE to co-host a conversation with Michael Oh about Lausanne 4 next year in Seoul, South Korea, and the importance of creating movements of collaboration to advance the Gospel. Learn more about the NAE at https://www.nae.org/ and the Lausanne Movement at https://lausanne.org/.

“Cultivating Resilience” is the last episode in our three-part miniseries “The Hardest Places on the Planet,” with Matthew Ellison and guest Josh Duncan of TRIAD. TRIAD exists to glorify the King by mobilizing, equipping, and deploying followers of Christ into the world’s hardest to reach places and people groups. Josh shares about how they prepare both goers and senders to cultivate resilience and how the Holy Spirit is at work, even amidst persecution. This episode is sponsored by Support Raising Solutions - get the training and inspiration you need to be fully funded and launch your ministry.

“When Dying Is Gain” is our second episode of three in our miniseries “The Hardest Places on the Planet,” with Matthew Ellison and guest co-host Bob Blincoe. Our guest is Mary Ho, who serves as the International Executive Leader of All Nations International, a training and sending agency that seeks to to ignite church planting movements among the neglected peoples of the earth. Mary shares what she has learned from the life and death of John Chau, who was martyred in 2018, and reflects on the cost, suffering, and joy of taking the gospel to the least reached places on the planet. This episode is sponsored by Support Raising Solutions - get the training and inspiration you need to be fully funded and launch your ministry.

Season 3 kicks off with the first of a three-part miniseries: The Hardest Places on the Planet. Bob Blincoe of Frontiers shares about his experiences as the first missionary team in Iraq, and how to build grit and resistance for workers called to the hardest places on the planet. This episode is sponsored by Support Raising Solutions - get the training and inspiration you need to be fully funded and launch your ministry. 

Matthew Ellison recaps the podcast for 2022, looks ahead to a new season on going to the hardest to reach places in 2023, and offers a word of encouragement on trusting God, even in the midst of really difficult things. 

There can be differences between the "missions with a S" world and the "missional" world - but Michael Goheen suggests there's a lot of common ground. Matthew, Ted, and Mike discuss the mission of the biblical story, the role of the church, vocation, cultural partnerships, and narrative theology.

Michael Goheen is director of Theological Education at Missional Training Center, scholar-in-residence for the Surge Network of Churches (Phoenix), and professor of missional theology at Covenant Theological Seminary (St Louis). Mike has authored, co-authored, or edited twelve books, including Becoming a Missionary Church: Lesslie Newbigin and Contemporary Church Movements (Baker, 2022), The Church and Its Vocation: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missional Ecclesiology (Baker, 2018), Introducing Christian Mission Today: Scripture, History, and Issues (IVP, 2014), A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story (Baker, 2011), and The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story (Baker, 2004). He spends time each year in Brazil, Chile, and Hungary training pastoral leaders. He is married to Marnie and together they have four adult married children and eleven grandchildren.

Steve Richardson, president of Pioneers, talks with Matthew and Ted about his new book, Is the Commission Still Great? 8 Myths About Missions and What They Mean for the Church. Is missions necessary? Isn’t it obsolete, colonial, and harmful? Doesn’t it reduce the impact of the local church? Steve, Matthew, and Ted debunk a few of the myths and discuss the great privileges and benefits of participating in the mission of God. Learn more about the book at https://books.pioneers.org/.

Haije Bergstra of Missie 1:8 and Jiska Chin-A-Teh of Missie Nederland - the global partners of Sixteen:Fifteen - share about a missions campaign and network that is uniting churches and agencies across the Netherlands: The No Choice Network. They also share thoughts on how churches were affected by the pandemic and what church renewal in the Netherlands might look like.