From the category archives:

Analysis

July 26, 2010

2010 Status of Southern Europe

The nations of Southern Europe were once great empires, but most have lost the glories of past positions and are struggling to advance into the modern global economy.The individual countries are fairly small, having few precious commodities but abundant natural resources like timber, water and metals. Many are landlocked, but sit on key trade routes [...]

July 19, 2010

2010 Status of Russia

Russia is the focus country for Eastern Europe (which we covered last week). It is the largest country in the world, spanning all of Asia and nearly half of Europe, and is the world’s largest in terms of forest reserves, minerals, and energy resources. Its lakes contain nearly a quarter of the world’s fresh water. [...]

July 12, 2010

2010 Status of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe (Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine) has one of the largest landmasses of any region in the world. Russia is the largest country in the world, and Ukraine is the second largest in Europe. The region is rich in resources, with farmland, timber, oil and rare metals. It [...]

June 21, 2010

Vulnerabilities Journal: June 2010

Each month we keep an eye on 15 major issues and here link to articles on major events in each category. These are global ‘vulnerabilities’ that can cause significant challenges or opportunities for the church and missions. Some categories will be empty month to month; we keep the categories standard. General Somalia in crisis: Drought, [...]

June 15, 2010

America decreasingly covers the world

In this insightful 4-minute talk by Alisa Miller (CEO of Public Radio International), we see how America’s major news outlets are drastically decreasing their coverage of international events, giving the average American (pew-sitter, donor, short-term mission taker, etc.) much less understanding of events around the world. Worth a watch below or see http://bit.ly/aab4H1.

June 11, 2010

The problem with mass evangelism

Here are some of the problems with mass evangelism (as I have seen it) (there are of course also many benefits): 1. We do not build long-term relationships with those we evangelize–the evangelist is the guy who blows into town, hands out tracts, through the force of his wonderful personality sees lots of fruit, and [...]

June 7, 2010

What does a “missional missionary” do?

Steve Addison asked the question, noting that there is no clear consensus of what “mission” is and describing how he is surprised by the range of responses. So, in the interest of clarity, I will suggest my own definition(s). First, let me begin by distinguishing between two different modes: the evangelist, who makes new converts; [...]

April 28, 2010

Church planting in the United States

In Exponential and Church Planting Trends, Ed Stetzer shares the results of a recent Lifeway REsearch survey. 3% of Protestant churches started new churches in the past year. 14% financially supported new church plants. Fortunately more new churches have been started than established churches have closed: but “we have a long way to go.”

April 18, 2010

Breakaway conservative Anglicans are planting churches

Breakaway Anglican flock plants over 100 new churches (Christian Today). This is to be expected. In The Churching of America Rodney Stark explained how liberalization and conservatism would, if given an “open and free religious market,” compete with each other and cause waves of renewal over time. Breakaway conservatives will likely always be more vigorous [...]

April 16, 2010

Africa: hub for drug traffickers

Africa’s Drug Problem – It doesn’t produce or consume much cocaine, but West Africa has become a critical hub for traffickers (NYT).

April 16, 2010

New Resource on Women at Risk

http://bit.ly/9637Ub – The Mission Exchange has a $20 Update on the Status of At Risk Women.

April 15, 2010

Africa goes to church, the mosque and the witch doctor

http://bit.ly/a2femj - The Pew Forum has a major new study interviewing 25,000 people in 19 sub-Saharan African countries about all aspects of faith and belief: the results are that the overwhelming majority of Africans are committed followers of either Islam or Christianity. Click through for lots of statistics.

April 7, 2010

How many Christians are in China?

Paul Hattaway has posted an extensive table of the number of Christians in China, with detailed statistics down to the prefecture & city level. He derives these from interviews as well as from over 2,000 published sources. A great, exhaustive, authoritative piece of research.

March 29, 2010

Millennials: the next missionaries

This short post discusses Millennials and how they are different. I’m not sure what the age ranges are here. But it is a useful post. In Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog.

March 29, 2010

Yemen divided over child brides

Hundreds of women were demonstrating in front of the Yemeni parliament: some in favor of child brides, and others against it. Take a look at a deep cultural divide. In IRIN.

March 29, 2010

Will Libya Change?

Is Gaddafi’s son a modernizer – or just the front man in a performance? In TIME.

March 29, 2010

Haiti: Tent City Economics

A nine-hole golf course in Port-au-Prince is now home to 50,000 people, and an economy that includes a makeshift movie theater and a lot of beauty salons. In NPR.

March 26, 2010

Shutting down a structure of sin

Iceland is on the brink of achieving what many considered to be impossible: closing down its sex industry. How: a strong women’s movement and a high number of female politicians. In The Guardian.

March 24, 2010

North Korea: more bad news

North Koreans fear another famine amid economic crisis (LA Times). Analysts in the region feel the nation is on a “countdown to collapse,” lurching from crisis to crisis, and supposedly Kim Jong-il has a life expectancy of less than three years.

March 24, 2010

Slums in crisis

A new paper by the Humanitarian Futures Programme, Urban Catastrophes, explores how a lack of clean water and sanitation in burgeoning slums could trigger a complex series of humanitarian crises.

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