In this issue…
1. LEGAL & TAX INFO FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
2. DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT JOHN STOTT LEADING LAUSANNE?
3. MISSIONARY TRAINING BOOKLETS: GET A WHOLE SET!
4. NEW CHILDREN/YOUTH BIBLE
5. IN HER HEART: THE NORTHERN CAPE COLOURED OF SOUTH AFRICA
6. MEDIA TRAINING ON OFFER
7. HEART OF GOD MINISTRIES’ 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
8. GLOBAL DIAL-UP OPTIONS
9. WE COULDN’T MAKE IT WITHOUT SPONSORS
10. LOOKING FOR SOUND HELP FOR YOUR LAPTOP PPT PRESENTATIONS?
11. GOT 5′ TO HELP WITH DOUG’S DOCTORATE?
12. HOW DOES YOUR MISSION DEAL WITH RETENTION?
13. CLOSING STUFF
1. LEGAL & TAX INFO FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS — The latest issue of the Nonprofit and Church Legal Trends Memorandum is now online. Here are some of the items covered: Federal minimum wage and overtime requirements do apply to churches and religious nonprofits but not to ministerial staff; IRS releases guidelines that can help nonprofit organizations with their employment taxes; principles of international charity have been developed by a working group of charitable organizations; churches, religious schools, and camps may be legally responsible for injuries resulting from failure to exercise adequate supervision of their programs and activities; IRS denies tax deduction for the educational expenses of obtaining an advanced degree. A part of each paid subscription goes to Brigada. Check out more at http://www.npchurchlaw.com or email info(at)npchurchlaw(dot)com Make sure you type “Brigada” in the “How did you hear about us” field. (Thanks to “Legal Trends” for the $10 sponsorship sent this past week!)
2. DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT JOHN STOTT LEADING LAUSANNE? — Sounds like the beginning of a one-liner… but it’s true. Read the whole press release about John Stott becoming the honorary chairman of the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization at… http://www.lausanne.org/Brix?pageID=15189 If anyone can help the LCWE rally us together, it’s he. Go John Stott!
3. MISSIONARY TRAINING BOOKLETS: GET A WHOLE SET! — Now you can get nine booklets in the current Missionary Training Service series for US$45 (normal price US$58). They’re Also available at much lower prices for the developing world. Includedare The Missionary Training Guide, Unreached Peoples of the World, The Missionary Team, How to make Disciples in Other Cultures, How to Learn Another Language, The Effective Sending Church, Tentmaking Missionaries, Evangelizing Muslims, Evangelizing Hindus and Buddhists. Order them individually for US$6.50. To order, or for more information, please contact MTS Book Department – Mrs Pauline Jones paulinemjones(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] or http://www.missionarytraining.org
4. NEW CHILDREN/YOUTH BIBLE — PlanetWord Bible has arrived, and talk about Perspective! The techno-driven design is based on the GPS system (global positioning system). It starts with the big picture, just like using a real GPS device. Each book introduction explains how God worked in this book of the Bible to make His name known. Then PlanetWord zooms in closer with short biographical sidebars showing how God used men, women and children throughout history, from all over the planet, to carry His name to all nations. These messengers, from many ethnicities, qualify as true role models, well-worth emulating! Thirty-two colorful pages offer maps, facts and tidbits about the eight major world religions. Sidebars focus even closer on accounts of student messengers acting through a variety of agencies, or on their own. Prayer sidebars help focus on God’s plan for each life and for unreached people groups. Other sidebars include samples of Mark 1;1-4 in scripts from around the world and country data where that language is spoken, along with 365 key verses from Genesis to Revelation revealing God’s overall plan and purpose. Written for children and youth, but challenging for adults, too. Ask for PlanetWord Bible (NKJV) in your local Christian bookstore (paperback or hardback) or browse http://www.thomasnelson.com, call 1-800-251-4000 or (615) 902-1288, or as a last resort email Jeremy: JJohnson(at)ThomasNelson (dot) com. [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address, please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
5. IN HER HEART: THE NORTHERN CAPE COLOURED OF SOUTH AFRICA — K. is an older lady who has been living life in the dark. She has always understood Christianity to be a religion which you join. It took a long time to explain the difference and the truth of the gospel. After the Lord opened her eyes, she prayed for Jesus to come into her heart. She was asked, “Where is Jesus?” With a smile she quickly responded, “He is in my heart, because I asked Him.” Pray for the Lord to build prayer support for the Northern Cape Coloureds, an unengaged people group. To adopt them for prayer or for more information, please visit http://www.forgottenpeoples.info or email swacsc(at)iafrica(dot)com
6. MEDIA TRAINING ON OFFER — The Media Training Alliance is an association of Christian Media professionals and academics who are offering their services to assist and train believers in developing countries to start and manage media projects, including radio and television. The MTA wants to get in contact with people looking for assistance with training and can use the service. If you are interested, or know anybody who might be, please get in touch with them. The MTA website is at: http://www.icti.org.uk/mta/ You can also email mta(at)icmc(dot)org [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .]
7. HEART OF GOD MINISTRIES’ 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY –- On July 4th, 2005, HGM will be celebrating its 10 year anniversary with a day of activities, including outdoor games, barbecue, evening service featuring Dr. Ralph Winter as special speaker (6:30pm) and a concert by Echoing Clarey (8pm). This anniversary coincides with the start of the 10th class of Beautiful Feet Boot Camp, HGM’s long-term missionary training program. Everyone is welcome to come and join the celebration! Location: Heart of God Ministries’ Oakhill Campus 3720 S. Hiwassee Rd. Choctaw, OK 73020 Any questions, call: 405.737.9446 See these sites for more information: http://www.heartofgod.com/ http://echoingclarey.com/
8. GLOBAL DIAL-UP OPTIONS — Thanks to Joshua Project networking specialist, Barbara Bills, who recently placed an item here in Brigada asking for input about how to connect to the Internet when traveling globally. She received input from several sources. Her report is featured on the web as a link in this very item. Click here for the report. (Thanks Barabara!! Good job!)
9. WE COULDN’T MAKE IT WITHOUT SPONSORS — We’re so thankful for the encouragement provided by those who help us provide for Brigada’s expenses, including webspace, some secretarial help, and a small amount of advertising. This past week, we received help via a $50 gift from a family in Hyattsville, MD with a specialty in TESL. Another sponsorship of came in the form of a $100 gift from a Perspectives alum. And thanks to “Legal Trends” for their $10 sponsorship! (See their item above.) We appreciate this help . . . and we hope for more to complete our 2005 goal of $16,576.
10. LOOKING FOR SOUND HELP FOR YOUR LAPTOP PPT PRESENTATIONS? — You can always try Interlink’s “GoSpeak” set. They’re based on NXT flat- panel speakers and are just a tad bigger than a notebook PC itself. They offer enough voice amplification for a few dozen people but probably aren’t as suitable for music, since their frequency response is only about 100 – 10,000 khz — not very broad for a set that will set you back $325, actually. But they’re light, compact, and handy. Your call. Learn more at: http://www.interlinkelectronics.com
11. GOT 5′ TO HELP WITH DOUG’S DOCTORATE? — That’s all it’ll take. Just click to: https://brigada.org/followership Click on the link for “Team Members and staff persons” and make sure you supply the info. on your team leader. Remember – no lists are being created from this data. It’s pure doctoral research. Read the privacy statement for more information. Doug’s still only about halfway there. All it would take is some good-sized mission with a few hundred team members. If the whole mission decided to participate, lock, stock, and barrel, he’d be done with all his surveying and could tackle the writing of the last few chapters of his dissertation — and be *done* with it!!! If you and/or your mission could help, please consider jumping on board. The topic is followership. We’ll report back the findings in Brigada Today. It’ll be *sooo* interesting. :-) LOL But seriously, please help if you can. It’s a no-cost way to do a good turn for Doug. :-) Remember – to be counted, you have to talk your team leader into participating too. So it’s a two-way street. Thanks for your help.
12. HOW DOES YOUR MISSION DEAL WITH RETENTION? — These past couple of days, my wife and I have been registering our 18-year-old at a university in Nashville, TN. The experience gave me a valuable cross- check on how much energy today’s learning institutions invest in *keeping* the students they have “on the hook.” The university had recruited about 20 students to help with the weekend. They blended lots of marketing with tons of get-to-know-you stuff and just lots of good will. By the end of the weekend, I’d venture a guess that both parents and prospective students were not only better informed, but probably more *likely* to stay in the hopper as incoming freshmen there this fall.
The whole thing gave me pause about how we treat new believers, new team members on our mission teams, and new recruits in our agencies.
When your agency hears about a new recruit — either through one of those inquiry forms or from a phone call or web inquiry — do you invest energy in follow-up? I’m convinced that until we fire up the person-to-person phone calls, emails, and face-to-face visits, we won’t have done enough for the cause of recruitment. Bottom line: Getting serious about recruiting new workers will mean getting serious about investing resources in communication with them.
And how ’bout your mission team itself. When the new guy arrives on the field, do you assign a “big brother” or a “big sister” to the new worker or family? Do you have a systematic orientation to your field, along with checkpoints to be sure to avert poor adaptation? Has your field taken the time to write down information that will be handy for new workers. I’m not suggesting we baby new arrivals… but, at the same time, let’s don’t ignore their special needs.
Finally, and most importantly, how do you handle young believers in your field. Do you seek out ways to bring them together in care groups that will create camaraderie, fellowship, and energy for them to follow the Way? Even in sensitive-access lands (maybe *especially* there), do we think carefully enough about how important it is to knit them into the tapestry of “group-ness”?
These are only the beginning of the tough questions we must all face if we’re going to mimic the university in Nashville. I’m convinced we can do more… and when we learn to do more in these areas, we’ll *keep* more precious co-workers . . . and we’ll accomplish more for the Kingdom.
Because it’s a jungle out there. So be careful. Doug
Recent Comments