Missions Outside the Box -thats the theme of the latest ABWE magazine "Message". I thought I would post a couple of quotes that I thought were noteworthy but the whole issue is worth a read.

"When we speak of doing missions outside the box, we are speaking about functioning according to God's creative character for He never gets trapped into a box when seeking to accomplish His plan." ... "As we view the task of missions in the 21st century, we must understand that we are approaching a huge undertaking that involves approx. 12,000 etno-linguistic people groups worldwide. Many of these peopl groups live in remote areas accessible only over difficult terrain and through difficult political permissions, and are discovered to be illiterate with no written language. How could anyone conceive of attempting to reach people like these using a process that would fit into a box?"

"Indeed missions is anything but factory assembled, shrink-wrapped, and shipped next-day air. Yet, as we seek to utilize God-given creativity to take the Gospel to the nations, the Gospel's dynamic, saving message remains ever the same." -Michael G. Loftis

"Only when this discouraged missionary rediscovered the dynamics of hands on compassion from our Lord's ministry in the Gospels as a universal paradigm of effective ministry, combined with new understandings of culturally effective outreach, was a church-planting methodology developed that produced multiple believers and reproductive churches." -Bill Commons

" A social Gospel without the Gospel is just social work" -Scott Roloson