Posts tagged as:

missions

The Continuing Work in Haiti

by Rhett Smith on June 1, 2010

This last February I had the opportunity to travel to Haiti with Adventures in Missions and some really amazing people. You can read some of the posts that I wrote about that experience here. I was hoping to get back to Haiti by this point, but I had to decline a chance to head back [...]

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Andrew Jones (aka Tall Skinny Kiwi) interview

by Rhett Smith on August 13, 2008

I had the privilege yesterday of interviewing Andrew Jones along with Andrew Jackson, Cynthia Ware, Matthew Anderson and Marcus Goodyear. Jones has some great insight into the history of blogging (he’s been blogging since 1997/1998) and ministry. Some really good thoughts on setting boundaries online, as well as a church’s need to have a sense [...]

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Short Term Missions: Coupling Education and Service

by Rhett Smith on July 16, 2008

This last March I led a team of 7 of us to Mexico City where we served with two of our partners Amextra and Partners in Hope. This was the second time that I took a team on this trip, and in all of my experiences in mission trips this has stood out as the [...]

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Short Term Missions: Are They a Waste of Money and Non-Effective?

by Rhett Smith on July 15, 2008

Andrew Jones had a post the other day on “Are Short Term Missions a Waste of Money?.” Andrew has 10 very good responses, which stem from the article in the Washington Post called “Churches Retool Mission Trips.” Here are some thought provoking and interesting statements from the article: Critics scornfully call such trips “religious tourism” [...]

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Practice, Participation and the Art of “Remixing” Church and Community

by Rhett Smith on July 3, 2008

In class my adviser, Ryan Bolger, often tells a story about a pastor of a mega-church in Arizona. One day the pastor, while walking with his son across the campus of the church he built, said, “Son, this is all going to yours someday,” and his son took a step back and responded, “I don’t [...]

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Non-Contextualization=Blond hair, blue eyed Jesus’ in Mexico

by Rhett Smith on April 3, 2008

I just got back from 8 days in Mexico City and one of the things that stuck out to me the most (in a sad, discouraging and appalling way), was all of the photos, paintings, etc. of a Euro Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes all over the city. That is what you get [...]

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A Different Kind of Mission Trip

by Rhett Smith on April 2, 2008

I have been on a lot of mission trips and I have always learned a lot from them. But one of the nagging questions I have is regarding their effectiveness in encouraging and sustaining long term transformation. A lot of mission trips are about going into a place and performing a service project with little [...]

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Back in town…

by Rhett Smith on March 30, 2008

I just got back in town after 8 amazing days in Mexico City with some college students from UCLA. We served with two of our partenrs, Amextra and Partners in Hope. That was my second trip with these partners and it has continued to be life changing, especially this one. So I will be posting [...]

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