Message Magazine Online - Vol. 56, No. 03, Summer 2008

In This Issue

• Editorial
  Angela Shuff
• Canadian Editorial
  David W. Smith
• The Ecology of Church Planting
  ABWE's Core Ministries Institute Training Team
• Living Out Wisdom Literature in Middle Eastern Culture
  Susan Schmidt, Middle East
• Consider the Joy
  Bill Commons, Strategic Initiative and Research
• Culture Shock Revisited
  A. W., South Asia
• A Willing Sacrifice
  Pauline Stevens, with her sisters Dr. Beulah Hall and Mrs. Laura Anne Cebulak
• Dig Your Roots Deep–But Where?
  Kimberly Rae
• Deep in Liberia, People Have Never Heard
  Keith Lippy, Liberia
• Training a Special People Group
  Bill Amstutz, President, Shepherds Ministries
• CLIPS
• Adapting to Retirement
  Spence W. Jackson
• Kids Can Help Start Churches, Too!
  Jim Cook, ABWE Next Generation Ministries
• Invest in Training Missionaries for Cross-Cultural Ministry
• Focal Point
  Michael G. Loftis, President, ABWE International

Editorial: Crossing Cultures

I will never forget my first real cross-cultural experience. I was a wide-eyed college student who wanted to see a distant part of the world for a summer. I previously had only experienced Christianity in the context of my life in central Pennsylvania. But for that summer, I found myself in a little church-plant in the slums of Peru, singing Spanish praise and worship songs to the strums of a guitar while a couple wild dogs paced up and down the aisle between the wooden pews! This church was quite different from my church back home, and it broadened my perspective of the world and the gospel that is Good News for all people.

ABWE trains its missionaries to take the gospel into all the world in culturally appropriate and effective ways—seeking not to change culture, but to change lives. God’s Church that He has redeemed for Himself is beautifully diverse. It’s a magnificent showcase to the power and relevance of God’s Truth for every time period and every person in every place. The articles in this issue of the Message deal with the blessings and challenges of living and ministering cross-culturally. I hope they give you food for thought and even inspire you to think about how you can reach outside yourself into someone else’s world to share Christ.

Working at ABWE as the editor of the Message has been an experience that has deepened my understanding, appreciation, and passion for global ministry. I’m now excited that God is moving me down a new path, as I am to be married in August 2008, and my husband and I are pursuing an opportunity to serve in overseas ministry. Leah Farr will be joining ABWE and taking the responsibility of the Message. She comes to ABWE with a great amount of experience in journalism and communications, and she has a heart that desires to serve the Lord with her gifts and abilities. Pray for her as she steps into this role, and pray that God will greatly use her to communicate about His work around the world.

Angela Shuff
Editor