Closing out the Asia Conference on Church & Mission on Thursday, a panel of evangelical leaders warned that one of the most serious failures in the global church is hiding in plain sight: the systematic displacement of parents as the primary disciplers of their own children.
In central India’s Chhattisgarh state, followers of tribal religion in Bastar District recently dug up the grave of a tribal Christian buried 20 years before. They unearthed his skeleton, burned it and scattered the ashes.
Pastors in small churches in India and around the world may lack formal theological education but responsibility shapes them, failure shapes them, suffering shapes them, prayer shapes them. Sometimes persecution shapes them. Character formation while walking faithfully with Jesus, guided by the Bible and trustworthy mentors, cannot be replicated by a program, and does not result in a diploma, but it is highly valuable education nonetheless.
Ebola has been spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. A terrifying disease, it must be handled with great pastoral wisdom and care. The former Chairman of the World Evangelical Alliance's International Council provides advice to the Church, which at first may seem counter-intuitive for followers of Jesus.
As Lebanon suffers under yet another war, the campus of a local seminary has become a safe haven for traumatized children; helping them to process their emotions in a healthy way guided by the Bible. Here is a glimpse into the Salt and Light program for children at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary.
Our understanding of the who, what, and where of missions is shifting as new realities emerge, like the missions movement from China. But undertaking and tracking missions by Western metrics continues to be questioned by many from non-Western backgrounds serving in missions today.
The right to express religious beliefs in Canada remained in jeopardy after lawmakers declined to include a religious belief defense in a hate crime bill.
Theological institutions are producing graduates ill-equipped for real-world ministry, denominational structures risk fossilizing into gatekeeping institutions, and Christian leaders across Asia are growing more exhausted than fruitful — these were among the pointed assessments delivered during the second-day morning panel of the Asia Conference on Church and Mission (ACCM), held in Manila.
