I'm a visionary, big-picture kind of bloke. I like knowing where we're going and not caring about the details. In that sense, the missionary job is ideal for me - there's a very definite big picture. I know what mission in the large looks like: we want to see everyone in Japan given the opportunity to know about Jesus.

I've heard many reasons why our work might not be effective: a "resistant" culture, inappropriate contextualisation, spiritual oppression… You can add some of your own, I'm sure.

Damn, I missed it again! Yesterday was the feast day of St Nikolai Kasatkin, Enlightener of Japan, one of the most important unsung figures of Japanese missiology.

Here is a parable.

A church pastor declares to his friend, a mission society leader, that the idea of “mission societies” is obstructive and non-Biblical. Always poaching our best people! Churches should be sending missionaries out directly!

While I'm in the business of publishing articles…

We've just had open day weekend which meant I was pretty much rushed off my feet for the past week with preparation. I have some things I need to blog, but first, a rant.

I was talking to a guy the other day who has come to Oxford, with a team of people, to plant a church. Wonderful! Oxford may well be the most churched city in the UK, but I guess it still needs some more work. And, rather than work with any of the established churches in the area, why not offer people a bit of variety in terms of another denomination for them to choose from?

Encounters 11 is out, and it's fantastic.

Donald MacGavaran, Neil Braun, and all the Pasadena kids, I'm talking to you. I find your reduction of the blessings of the Gospel to a matter of statistics incredibly distasteful:

Two quick quotes: