- WHAT ARE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WORDS TO LEARN FIRST?
- WHERE DO YOU PURCHASE TRAVEL THESE DAYS?
- “TRAIN & MULTIPLY” COURSE
- ARE YOU A JOGGER IN THE UK/USA?
- CHURCH-PLANTING MOVEMENT TRAINING (SINGAPORE IN JULY, 2007)
- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR NEEDED
- ANOTHER COLLABORATIVE SITE
- NEW MISSION EDUCATION RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN
- FINANCIAL MANAGER NEEDED
- HEROIC PARTNERS DESERVE OUR THANKS
- TITHE TO BRIGADA JUST ONE MONTH?
- THE BACKPAGE: [drum roll] DISSERTATION DONE!
- CLOSING STUFF
- WHAT ARE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WORDS TO LEARN FIRST? — A Christian worker in North Africa wrote this past week to ask, “Have you ever come across a list of words that are supposedly ‘power words’ or ‘power phrases’ that would theoretically be the most strategic to learn first when studying a new language?” I remember studying such a list from Tom & Betty Sue Brewster. You can still by the syllabus my wife and I used in their class at Fuller …
http://www.fullerseminarybookstore.com/prod_lst.php?pageID=6&id_cat=114
I wonder if there are other such lists… or if the Brewsters’ power text list has ever made it onto the web yet? (A quick scan didn’t turn it up.) If you have such a list already assembled, please stop by at:
http://brigada.org/brigade/?p=8
And comment about it. Thanks!
- WHERE DO YOU PURCHASE TRAVEL THESE DAYS? — Dave wrote this past week with the sincere question, “What would you suggest as the best way to purchase an airline ticket for my daughter who is flying to Cambodia on a mission trip in June, coming home in July?” Dave, let’s do a refresh on the best travel agencies we know about these days. We’ll ask helpers to log on at:
http://brigada.org/brigade/?p=9
Just click on “Comment” to add a note about your favorite travel service or ticket purchase source. Thanks!
- “TRAIN & MULTIPLY” COURSE — Train & Multiply (known as T&M) is a proven method of training pastoral leaders and planting churches, using a set of 63 booklets and a Student Activity Guide which are Biblical, practical, economical, field tested and applicable in both city and rural areas. Now available: Russian. Check their web for all translated languages.
http://www.trainandmultiply.com
Hats off to Lloyd for this tip!
- ARE YOU A JOGGER IN THE UK/USA? — If so, plan your route at:
What does that have to do with world evangelism? Not much, unless you pray while you jog! So let’s try that!
- CHURCH-PLANTING MOVEMENT TRAINING (SINGAPORE IN JULY, 2007) — Asia Pacific Mission (APM) together with Singapore Centre for Evangelism and Missions (SCEM) is conducting a full-time training course for Strategy Coordinators in Missions. The cost is US$600 per single person or married couple. Accommodations can be arranged on request. The course deals with People Group Research, Network, Outreach, Platform, and Church-Planting Movement (CPM) Development and writing a Master Plan to reach an Unreached People Group/Region/City. Included in this training is a workshop/seminar on Partnership Development. Furthermore, those who successfully complete this training are awarded 10 credits from Bethany International University (Singapore). For more info, contact Frank strategycoordinator(at)gmail(dot)com with subject line “SCT ’07”. Additional info and application form will be sent to you.
- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR NEEDED — … at the Action USA Office in Mountlake Terrace, WA. The position is partially subsidized and raises missionary support. It is for a full-time position needing to learn the present office system and willing to walk office through new software installation later this year. The individual needs to travel overseas for short trips to help missionaries and ministry partners with technical problems. An experienced individual is desired to work with various personalities and be patient with mundane questions or problems in the office or from the field as necessary. For more info, write Pearl pearl(at)actionusa(dot)org [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] or, in the USA, call 1-800-755-6918 or elsewhere +1-425-775-4800.
- ANOTHER COLLABORATIVE SITE — Still looking for a site through which you and your co-workers can partner? Try
http://www.callwave.com/landing/corp_home_v2e.asp
Danny wrote, “Have a look at this one, which is totally free. I think you can send about 4-6 SMS a day. I use this with my Mac, with the help of a widget. (Like gadgets, but are the original idea). The recipient thinks this comes from the phone. All that is different is that it says it is from CallWave at the beginning of the text.” Thanks Danny!
- NEW MISSION EDUCATION RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN — Are you looking for new and interesting ways to teach children about missions? Do you want to help them explore the fascinating world of Bible translation or encourage them to make a difference for the kingdom of God right now? Adding to the Bright Ideas! series of lessons, Wycliffe has updated their web site. They now offer three entirely new sections of downloadable resources to help you meet your education goals. Choose from short, stand-alone lessons; a series of five prayer lessons; three lessons on Senegal; or a full, twelve-lesson curriculum on Bible translation. These resources, appropriate for Sunday school, vacation Bible school or any other Christian education venue are available at
http://www.wycliffe.org/kids/curriculum.aspx
For questions please email marilyn_west(at)wycliffe(dot)org .
- FINANCIAL MANAGER NEEDED — … in the Action USA Office in Mountlake Terrace, WA. This individual is responsible for all financial and accounting facets of operations including supervising financial department staff, receipting, disbursements, accounts, budgets, recordkeeping, annual audit preparations with an outside auditor, correspondence with missionaries, donors, and leaders, and training of new missionaries in financial procedures. This person assists the USA Director with information, records, projects, and board presentations. He/she will assist in design and implementation of new software for ACTION USA. This person should have several years of experience in accounting, working with a variety of individuals, patience and not easily ruffled.
For more info, write Pearl pearl(at)actionusa(dot)org [As a means of preventing spam for our contributors, in the preceding email address(es), please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .] or, in the USA, call 1-800-755-6918 or elsewhere +1-425-775-4800.
- HEROIC PARTNERS DESERVE OUR THANKS — Thanks to Blessed Hope for its support of Brigada — $10.23 worth of sponsorships this past week as a result of Brigada patrons using their service! Thank you! If you’d like to line up some top-quality phone service at a great price, while helping Brigada pump out resources to the nations, browse to:
http://www.lowermyphonebill.com/brigada
Meanwhile, Mission Nannys chipped in $100 more, commenting that Brigada had helped them increase news and exposure to their ministry. See…
Thank you Betty and staff!
Finally, we’re incredibly grateful this week to 2 relatively new Brigada participants who wrote, “We just want to thank you for your ministry. … God is using your ministry in might ways. Thank you for striving to build community among like-minded folks.” They added, “My husband and I are looking for a new church and felt led to tithe our money for the month to Brigada. Please accept our offering and I pray that God will use it to increase fruit at Brigada. Keep up the good work!” They sent a check for $500. Gulp. Thank you for your kindness and encouragement!!! It’s sobering to think that it would only take 30 more individuals like them, giving their tithe for just 1 month of the year! Then Brigada would be funded for the entire year and we’d never mention finances again ’til January 2008!!!!
- TITHE TO BRIGADA JUST ONE MONTH? — Want to be one of the 30? Just click “Sponsor/Donate” in the top menu (to use PayPal or a credit card), or if you prefer, send a check payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada secretary), 13711 Willow Reed Dr., Louisville, KY 40299. (Team Expansion is a 501(c)3 incorporation so for USA citizens, your checks made out to Team Expansion are tax-deductible.) As always, be sure to let us know if you’d like us to promote any particular service or ministry, or if you’d prefer your gift be anonymous. And thank you in advance for helping.
- THE BACKPAGE: [drum roll] DISSERTATION DONE! — Shew. Remember a while back when many of you helped me by completing a survey on followership? Finally, after a *mongo* amount of time, I’m finished with my dissertation. I’ll send in the 150-page paper and I’m sure they’ll find some/many spots they want revised, and then I’ll have to defend it, and then do a comprehensive exam before I actually (hopefully) receive my Ph.D. and MBA degrees, but I’m still on “cloud 9”, ecstatic that it’s over.
Did I learn anything? You bet. The purpose of this study was to discern whether or not followership style (as described by researcher Robert Kelley) could act as a predictor of job satisfaction and productivity among employees serving on teams in the non-profit work force. A total of 639 individuals participated in the survey, including 357 team members and 282 of their respective team leaders. All were employees of humanitarian aid organizations, non-government agencies and other non- profit groups. Although the results failed to show a significant relationship between team member’s Followership Style and a Team Leader’s view of that team member’s Productivity (as defined by this project), Job Satisfaction was related. Interestingly, the study also showed a relationship between Kelley’s “Actively Engaged” factor and employee Productivity. Workers who scored above 30 on the Actively Engaged scale were significantly more likely to be looked upon by their respective team leaders as Productive. When considered in conjunction with research cited in the literature review, the study also confirms that followership data is indeed useful not only in gaining real-world feedback on worker performance, but also in formulating plans and goals for future improvement. The implication is that if companies and organizations would invest more time, effort, and funds in followership research, they could learn more about the nature of their employees, their teams, and the abilities of their personnel to accomplish the organizational mission.
But content on followership wasn’t the only lesson learned. I also learned that no matter how long it takes me to work something in, I just don’t ever quit. Actually, the truth was, nobody was offering me a raise for getting a MBA/Ph.D. I don’t really make time to teach that often, so the academic side isn’t really a qualification I need. I was more interested in just furthering my education with the hopes that I’d do my job better. And I’m convinced it will indeed help me. And the lesson learned — namely, never, never, never give up — was just as important as the content on followership.
So again, thanks for participating . . . in teaching me about *both* topics: followership *and* never quitting. Doug
PS. Interested in considering grad study on your own? Consider any of the fine graduate schools that have listed in Brigada, either through resident or distance-learner modes. (If you’re a graduate school offering an advanced degree in Missions… and you read Brigada, would you go write up a paragraph about your grad degree, providing a web URL to learn more about your programs? Just go to:
http://brigada.org/brigade/?p=10
Click on “comments” following this item to add your information. Thanks!
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