Serve Incarnationally
Living a life of service is both a blessing and a challenge. Sometimes the needs of a community are so obvious and overwhelming that it can be hard to know where to begin. In other contexts, the needs might not be so obvious. In either case, part of the missionary task is to learn how to identify the local needs and create a plan to meet them in a way that will empower the local people and truly help. When this balance is found, serving incarnationally is a wonderfully life-changing experience! Here you will find resources to help you as you seek to minister to those you are called to serve.


Blog
Leadership With Vision
Read how the biblical story of Jonathan centers on a vision implementation with practical applications for leaders. When my wife …
Let’s Travel the World!
Your Global Citizen Pretend Passport Do you have a passport? I bet you do! Passports are little booklets that allow …
Embracing God’s Heart for Immigrants and Refugees
By Joseph Kidder and Boubakar Sanou Several years ago, my [Joseph’s] brother and his family came to the United States …
The Jesus Method in Action: A Martinican Woman in Madagascar
Based on an interview by Oscar Osindo, Associate Director, IWM For many, the opportunity to explore a culture different from …
From Third Culture Kid to GC President: Life Lessons for Missionary Families
Listening to the IWM podcast episode entitled “From Missionary Kid to GC President,” I was encouraged and inspired by the …
Sharing Christ with the Buddhists
Christians have often found it difficult to share the gospel with Buddhists. Buddhists have often found it difficult to become …
Confessions of a Trailing Spouse
When Roy heard the call to be a missionary, I heard absolutely nothing — not even the faintest whisper of …
Three Steps Missionaries Can Use to Cope With Challenges
In this video, Dr. Ann Hamel shares three steps to help us cope with the challenges we face in life. …
Do Children Need Cross Cultural Training?
Often times, organizations question whether the spending time to train children for cross cultural service is truly necessary and worthwhile. …
7 Effective Ways to Deal With Culture Shock
Would you try running an iOS app on an Android smartphone? This illustrates what people experience who have been enculturated …
Your Values and Culture
In all we do we are guided by our values. However, individuals and cultures differ on what they value as …
Conquer Your Cultural Stereotypes
Our culture determines what feels normal, right, and real to us, and what we take for granted. When asked why …
Learning Culture: 5 Implications for Missionaries
Most aspects of culture are learnt in early childhood before you know how to reason. You learn everyday things like …
How to Prepare to Cross Cultural Boundaries
Most of us remember an experience that made a trip to another country memorable. Often it is some aspect of …
Two Main Reasons why you Should say “yes” to Mission
Many people think we should leave people in the world alone and not bother them with Christianity. Others would argue …
3 Effective Ways to Reach the Unreached
As great as challenges are outside the church, the people of God also face challenges inside the church. Take for …
Geography of Power
If you have ever visited an administrative official in another culture you know that this event can be a most …
The Word From the Streets
Many of you are living and working in cities. The rest of you really can’t escape the cities, even though …
A Better Return: Partnering with Volunteers
The wisest man in earth’s history understood the value and mathematics of partnership. One may be good. One may have …
Five Essential Skills to Grow as a Leader
A few days ago, I read an article written by Bill Hybels about how leaders grow, and I would like …
Podcasts
Webinars
In this live event we look at trends, research, and practical examples contributing to a strategy for outreach every Adventist missionary can try and adopt.
This video presentation tackles an important question: How can Adventist missionaries understand and experience success in their missionary assignments?
In this presentation, Dr. Gorden Doss, Professor at Andrews University gives a presentation on What is Adventist in Adventist Mission? This presentation is strongly based on the book written by Dr. Gorden called Introduction to Adventist Mission.
In this presentation, Erich Baumgartner talks on dealing with something every missionary faces — cross-cultural conflict.
In this presentation, Dr. Erich Baumgartner, director of the adventist leadership center talks about the importance of being a culturally sensitive leader.
In this presentation, Dr. Pat Gustin, former Institute of World Mission director talks about the power of sharing Christ and the Gospel throught stories.
Many people in the world today are Muslim. They make up a significant percentage of unreached people groups. If you are interested in serving, or are serving, in a Muslim context, this live event is for you!
In this webinar, we explore ways to thrive and adapt to missionary family life in a Muslim context.
Did you know that East Asians place special value on family and family relationships? The Sigalaka sutra defines six important relationships and describes the ethics that define them. God also places special value on family. Join us as we explore family relationships from an East Asian perspective and discuss how we can use these values to present the Gospel and model the kingdom of God.
Life is a paradox. Joy and suffering, challenges and opportunities. And of course, in the mission field, it isn’t any different.
As we notice our world becoming more unbalanced day by day, how do we maintain our own balance between work demands and quality family time, even while we’re going through suffering and challenges?
Sometimes we think that the mission field is a destination. Instead, let’s look at it as a journey.
Every journey has a beginning. Is your family where that journey begins?
Many missionaries work in places where the language is different from their native tongue.
This requires them to study a whole new language. Learning a new language allows for experiencing new ideas, exercising the mind, benefiting from cultural diversity, developing a deeper level of empathy and increase social relations at work and with the community.
At the Institute of World Mission, we have a passion to help Adventist missionaries grow as disciple-makers.
Our hearts go out to the many missionaries who become frustrated when traditional approaches (including proof-text Bible studies) fail them in oral, storytelling cultures.
We have prepared a webinar to help you combat this challenge.
In this webinar, the presenters will help Adventist missionaries and employees working cross-culturally take a thorough look at the challenges and dangers of violating best practices in the area of conflict of interest.
Conflict of Interest is often understood as a boring chore of signing a slip twice a year. In reality, it’s a complex ethical and cultural phenomenon. When violated, consequences are long felt and painful. It can make or break a ministry.
Do we all read the Bible in the same way? Do we all glean the same insights from the Bible? To what extent does our culture impact what we see in the Scripture? What implications does this have to life and service of a missionary?
One of the five key goals for the Institute of World Mission is to help Adventist cross-cultural employees and missionaries think biblically about missions and its needs.
The three main points that we have prepared for you in this webinar are:
1. Get a fuller appreciation of what Shame and Honor cultures are.
2. Find out why this single factor plays a major role.
3. Start on a journey of serving effectively among people with Shame and Honor paradigm.
Join us for a live event on gaining cultural intelligence with Dr. Pat Gustin.