What I Read Online - 06/28/2012 (p.m.)

• Toward Better Short-Term Missions – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • Short-Term Cross-Cultural Ministry Should Be an Extension of Local Ministry
  • Focus on Long-Term Partnerships with Local Churches
  • One of the problems with short-term missions is that we are stuck in relief work. We paint and build houses, hold babies, and give presents. We do this because almost anyone in our churches can get involved. This type of work makes us feel good but sometimes harms people. Relief is appropriate for short periods, but if you want to get involved in alleviating physical poverty and use that platform to share the gospel and relieve spiritual poverty, you must move toward development work. It’s harder, takes longer, but is certainly a better form of mercy and justice ministry.

• Pornopoly – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • Pastors and theologians must take the initiative to equip themselves and other Christians with a more fully developed Biblical theology of sex and sexuality. This will require more than a facetious sermon series about a pastor’s rooftop sexperiment. This will require us to be more thoughtful and thorough.

• You Asked: Did Mark Fumble His Opening Quotation? – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • So what initially looks like an error turns out, when viewed in the light of ancient literary practice, to be a highly informative summary of Mark’s Gospel.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.