Latest Posts

Leading People to the Frontlines When the Frontlines Come to You

Not too long ago, pastors and missionaries needed to use photos and videos to help people see the multi-ethnic reality of the world.  The frontlines of the cross-cultural discipleship at the heart of the Great Commission seemed far away.  Not so anymore!  Do you want your congregation to see the nations now? Just take a field…

Bringing International Students to Church?

Eric Warren writes about discipling international students within the context of a local American church and shares a new model for trying to address some common tensions. A big issue that those who minister to international students wrestle with (or need to wrestle with more) is how to think about the relationship between international students (Christian…

Open Doors 2017/2018

The latest information on international students in the US is out.  While the main news is that there are still over 1 million students in the US, there was a 6.6 percent decline in new students.  There was not an overall decline due to the fact that a large number of students remained in the U.S.…

Five Ways to be a Global Missionary this Thanksgiving

  Tom Knight provides five steps to embrace the Thanksgiving holiday as an opportunity to be a global missionary in your own campus community. With Thanksgiving fast approaching we often think of time with family, a turkey dinner with pumpkin pie, and pilgrims giving thanks to God. But we often forget that the first Thanksgiving was…

Mobilizing the Mobilized

  Chris Mills writes about the strategic value of translating students’ mission experience to reaching the nations all around them, wherever they go. One of my primary areas of ministry is mobilizing students to the nations. I love to hear stories of how students have seen God at work through their service, whether it’s across town…

Ten Reasons for Your Church to do ISM

Jon Varner writes about international student ministry being a simple way that every church and ministry can begin engaging the nations for Christ. Have you ever heard the phrase, “…can’t see the forest for the trees?” I believe the opposite is the problem concerning major missions strategies at this time. We have become so overwhelmed by…

A Holistic Approach to International Student Ministry

By Chase Jenkins, FBC Durham, NC. I remember eight years ago being asked to serve as an English teacher during our church’s weekly ESL outreach, a ministry I didn’t know we had. It was an urgent need; the ESL team was already at capacity and needed additional teachers. My students would be Nepali refugees who spoke…

American and International Student Ministries Working Together

  Dennis Runner shares some practices that could help you add international student work within an existing college ministry. What do you do if you are launching an International student ministry? Here are some questions that might be going through your head: “How do I begin to connect with international students?” “What about creating a registered…

How to Get International Students Connected With the Local Church

One of the bedrock principles God has used to guide my heart in evangelism came from a statement in Oscar Thompson, Jr.’s book on relationship evangelism, Concentric Circles of Concern. It is found in the first few sentences in Chapter 1. He said, “The most important word in the English language apart from proper nouns, is…

Steps to Cross-Cultural Servanthood

We know that Jesus came to serve and not be served.  His example sets a high standard for us to follow.  We all should be servants in some way.   But let’s face it, when it comes right down to it, we often are commanding servants, well-meaning but blind servants, or perhaps befuddled servants.  This is especially…