“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
Some stories are well known and repeated so often that one storyteller can pick up where another has left off without missing a beat. While the voice changes, and some details may be enhanced or slightly modified, the underlying story remains the same. This is what we find in the biblical Gospels. Four distinct voices ring with a unified testimony about “That which was from the beginning [of the Christian faith], which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1, ESV). The Gospels are faithful accounts of what the apostles saw and heard and touched and experienced. And they give us stories that can and should be told over and over and over again by many voices speaking in many languages.
This issue of Mission Round Table tells some stories about God’s work in his church that are so well known that readers could come in and take up the tale in their own words and style. Some stories told here are probably not as familiar as some might have imagined, and at least one will hardly be known at all.
- All
- Church Planting
- CIM-OMF Archives
- History
- Malaysia
- Mission Practice
- Mission Theory
- Support Ministry
Do We Need Missionary Societies?
This article leads us through biblical and theological concerns that highlight the place of the church in God’s plan for world evangelism and points out historical evidence of men and women gathering into fellowships and moving out to share the good news. It includes recent examples and provides a practical perspective on how sending churches, [...]
‘Making all things new’—or Did We?
This article recounts the “reluctant exodus” of the China Inland Mission from China and its re-formation into the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. The world was changing and the Mission was forced to change right along with it. Decisions were made that would shape the organization and its ministry as it began to work in new lands [...]
Beyond the Cambridge Seven: The Rev. Arthur Twistleton Polhill and the Dazhou Fú Yīn Táng
The article tells the story of Arthur Polhill, the youngest of the Cambridge Seven—the young men who joined CIM and left what could have been the good life in late nineteenth-century England to share the gospel in China. Even though we know that they became famous for what they gave up, the careers of these [...]
God’s Mission to the Lisu
The article focuses on one of the most familiar stories in CIM/OMF history told in the biographies of J. O. Fraser and books by Leila Cooke and Isobel Kuhn. Is it possible to say anything new? Are we familiar with the other missionaries who labored among the Lisu? This article tells some things in a [...]
Book review – Planting an Indigenous Church: The Case of Borneo Evangelical Mission by Jin Huat Tan
Reviewed by Ka-Neng Au Librarian at OMF International The Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) was founded in Australia in 1928 on principles and values that were inspired by those of the China Inland Mission. This included trusting that God would provide their material needs and that leadership should be based in the field. The BEM committed [...]
Book review – James Hudson Taylor: Called by God into the Heart of the Dragon
Reviewed by Ka-Neng Au Librarian at OMF International This biography by a great-grandniece of James Hudson Taylor is beautifully illustrated with photographs and pictures of artifacts from the China Inland Mission archives. The text draws selectively from earlier biographies as well as family letters. While the narrative follows a typical chronological structure, the author focuses [...]
Book review – Churches and Mission Agencies Together: A Relational Model for Partnership Practice
Reviewed by Ka-Neng Au Librarian at OMF International The book is a call to developing good relations between churches, mission agencies, and their missionaries, with many helpful suggestions for best practices to address some important issues in missions. The editor is the Missions Pastor of a church in Singapore and the contributors are leaders in [...]
