Radstock Ministries

Greetings from merry old England, where there are sometimes too many vowels (think: honour) and sometimes all the right vowels, just in the wrong place (think: theatre).

I am going to be checking in with reports from the main sessions of the 2010 Radstock Conference, Pursuing God… Transforming the World. The conference combines Bible teaching, prayer, singing, and updates on the work of God in churches around the network.

There are a lot of awesome missions groups out there, but here are five reasons I particularly enjoy being involved in the Radstock network:

1. Money. Radstock does a lot of good work with a ridiculously small amount of money. There are no full-time administrative employees. There are no offices. The goal is not to build an impressive organization, but to see resources put into mission.
2. Church based. This is a big Radstock distinctive. Mission is the privilege and responsibility of local churches. The motto around here is “Mission at the heart of local churches, local churches at the heart of missions.”
3. Work in edgy places. There is exciting work going on in places that I can’t talk about in this context. But it gets my blood pumping to see how people are strategizing to get the gospel into dark places.
4. Relational. Radstock is a network, not a missions agency. So you don’t just send money, but you build relationships. Over the past few years I have built relationships with brothers and sisters from far-flung places like Uttar Pradesh and Cambodia. I can’t tell you what it’s like to pray for these brothers and sisters and have them pray for our church in as well.
5. Mission doesn’t flow from the West. If mission is at the heart of the local church, then we should expect that local churches all over the world will be missionary congregations. Our church in Virginia is trying to work with some non-Western churches to send us Spanish-speaking missionaries. Churches in the network are sending missionaries from all over the world to all sorts of different places.