Uncontacted tribes still exist. It is hard to believe a group of people can exist for thousands of years without having contact with the outside world. But currently over 100 uncontacted tribes are scattered throughout the world.

Yesterday, new photos of an uncontacted tribe on the border of Peru and Brazil were published. When the tribe saw the airplane, they tried to shoot it with arrows. Unfortunately, contact with such tribes also brings them in contact with deadly diseases they have never known. Survival International reports many uncontacted tribes are fleeing their land as colonists, loggers, oil crews, and cattle ranchers come.

So how do we reach these uncontacted tribes with the gospel? It is not an easy question to answer, particularly when contact could expose them to diseases. Each tribe is unique. One missions organization that does well reaching people who have never heard the gospel is New Tribes Mission. If you want to see what evangelizing and discipling a remote tribe looks like, watch the following two videos about the Mouk tribe of Papua New Guinea.

Evangelizing the Mouk Tribe

Discipling the Mouk Tribe

For Discussion:
- How do you think these uncontacted and remote tribes can best be reached with the gospel?

[via Yahoo! News & The Daily Mail]

I spent part of my childhood as a missionary’s kid in Lima, Peru. Two weeks before we moved to Peru, the leader of the Shining Path terrorists was captured. His capture made Peru significantly safer.

Because of terrorism, Lima was a place where a bank security guard might carry a grenade and where grocery security guards routinely checked cars in the parking lot for bombs. Overall, I found Lima to be quite safe. Legal gun ownership was restricted to specific people, such as police, military, security, and diplomats. But despite my sense of security, terrorism still occurred.

In fact, a few blocks from our house, a school was bombed. The blast rattled our windows. But our street was always safe. One reason is we prayed for God’s protection. And another reason is we had gunmen protecting both ends our street. One corner had two private security guards protecting our landlord’s house with semi-automatic pistols. The other corner had a military jeep with several soldiers carrying submachine guns.

Needless to say, our street had no crime. No terrorism. The presence of guns helped make our street safe.

MINISTRY LESSON
The presence of church security helps deter troublemakers.

Church security guards make potential troublemakers think twice about doing wrong, particularly misdemeanors like vandalism or petty theft. I also believe the presence of guns and church security can deter potential church shooters.

Sadly, we know even with armed church security that church shootings can still happen. Such was the case at New Life Church (Colorado Springs, CO) when a church shooter killed two and injured three in the church parking lot before he entered the church building where he was finally shot and stopped by an armed church security guard. The security guard had been praying and fasting beforehand.

Just in the past two weeks, three church shootings have occurred in California, Delaware, and Jamaica. Without question, it is important that we pray for God’s protection and fully put our trust in Him. But many churches also consider it important and good stewardship to have a church security presence. In fact, one church goes as far as sending their security team to The Defensive Shooting Academy for police and military quality training.

For Discussion:
- Do you think church security is a good idea or bad idea and why?
- If you already have church security, what are your best tips for keeping church safe?

Other MK Ministry Lessons
1. Speaking Another Language
2. Big Numbered Intis
3. Timoteo’s Fly Eye Kaleidoscope
4. Christmas Tacos
5. Worm Pills

I spent part of my childhood as a missionary’s kid in Lima, Peru. One October, my parents hosted a team of doctors and nurses from Cincinnati for medical missions in Lima and Cusco.

At one of the ministry sites near Cusco, many of the children had worms. It is an easily cured problem with worm pills. Unfortunately, our medical team could only briefly solve the problem. After taking a worm pill, the children would rush to the water spigot to wash the pill’s bad taste out. But the water from the spigot contained the parasites which gave them worms in the first place.

The worm pills could never solve the problem until the root of the problem was taken care of first. Without clean water, the worm pills were useless.

MINISTRY LESSON
Effective problem solving takes care of the root of the problem.

For example, a congregation that resists change for tradition’s sake, does not need persuasion as for why change is necessary. What they need is a mindset shift from a selfish, inward focus to a selfless, missional focus.

Or when your children’s ministry check-in process is creating long lines, do not corral the parents with stanchions if what you really need is to simplify the check-in system.

If volunteers are not performing well, you probably do not need better volunteers. You probably need better leadership.

If you don’t take care of the root of the problem, you will always have problems to solve.

For Discussion:
- What are your tips for problem solving?

Other MK Ministry Lessons
1. Speaking Another Language
2. Big Numbered Intis
3. Timoteo’s Fly Eye Kaleidoscope
4. Christmas Tacos

I spent part of my childhood as a missionary’s kid in Lima, Peru. They didn’t have tacos there. That surprises some. Instead, a popular meal was half a plate of rice, half a plate of mashed potatoes, and a chicken wing on top.

I never cared much for tacos. But that all changed during my first Christmas in Peru. My parents had been saving a box of Old El Paso taco shells that they secretly brought during our move to Peru. And that night, our first Christmas in Peru, we ate American tacos.

Those were the best tacos I have ever had. It took a season without American food to awaken my love for tacos. But now every Christmas, I eat tacos for dinner.

MINISTRY LESSON
Sometimes it takes being away from something to realize just how much you love it.

In ministry, it is easy to become a workaholic. Your passion consumes you, and before you know it, ministry consumes your day. But the problem with living life with no breaks, no rest, and at full force is it will weaken your passion. The flame will flicker and, if not careful, burn out.

Sometimes the most productive thing for your ministry is to stop. Take a break. Take a vacation. And if your passion for ministry is real, then your short season without ministry will awaken an even stronger love for it.

For Discussion:
- How do you reawaken your passion for ministry?

Other MK Ministry Lessons
1. Speaking Another Language
2. Big Numbered Intis
3. Timoteo’s Fly Eye Kaleidoscope

Church Relevance’s list of the top church websites has now grown to 85 sites. And by far, it is the best church web design gallery I’ve created yet. As a designer, it is thrilling to see more and more churches recognizing the importance of quality design and launching great websites.

Ten new church websites have been added to the list. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Edgepoint Church (Powell, TN)

Igreja Batista Missionaria (Ipatinga, Brazil)

James River Assembly (Ozark, MO)

New Life Church (Conway, AR)

North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA)
Now using the same design as their Buckhead campus launched earlier this year.

Planetshakers City Church (Melbourne, Australia)

The Church at South Las Vegas (Henderson, NV)

The Embassy of the Kingdom of God (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada)

Watermark Church (Grand Haven, MI)

Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, IL)

For more great examples of church web design, check out the complete list of the Top 85 Church Websites.

For Discussion:
- What are your favorite church websites and why?

A weakened economy and rising food costs has created a scarcity of food among people who never thought they would be lacking. According to the U.S. government, 1 in 9 households (10.9%) did not have enough food for a healthy lifestyle at some point during 2006.

Food banks report a 15% to 20% increase in demand from last year. And 4 in 5 food banks (80%) could not meet this month’s demand without cutting operations or food portions.

This is the worst that I’ve ever seen it by far.
- Dave Krepcho :: Food Bank of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)

There is a big mission field in your back yard. Working with your local food banks is a great way to minister to your community’s needs.

[via The USA Today]

Researchers from SAMHSA and RTI International discovered that an alarming number of teenagers experience major depression. In fact, 1 in every 12 teenagers (8.5%) aged 12 to 17 experienced a major depressive episode (MDE) within a one year period.

• 1 in 8 teen girls (12.7%) experienced a major depressive episode
• 1 in 21 teen boys (4.6%) experienced a major depressive episode

The likelihood of a teenager experiencing a MDE increases with age.

Among teens with a past year MDE, how many are impaired by the MDE in at least one of four role domains (i.e., home, school/work, family relationships, or social life)?

• 1 in 5 (21.0%) reported very severe impairment lasting an average 58.4 days
• 1 in 2 (48.3%) reported severe impairment lasting an average 25.8 days
• 1 in 4 (25.0%) reported moderate impairment lasting an average 14.1 days
• 1 in 19 (5.3%) reported mild impairment lasting an average 11.7 days
• 1 in 250 (0.4%) reported no impairment

For more details, read the full report. It is saddening to see so many teenagers being crippled by depression. Based on these statistics, there is a good chance someone in your youth group is experiencing a major depressive episode.

For Discussion:
- Aside from prayer, what are some effective ways to help teens prevent or cope with depression?

[via MSNBC]

I spent part of my childhood as a missionary’s kid in Lima, Peru. In the early years, my parents taught Bible school classes at a mission. It was a big blue building with a courtyard for parking vehicles. Near the front gate were some stairs that led up to a small room with a couch and a kitchen. Attached to that was a much smaller room that was barely large enough to fit a mattress. This is where Timoteo lived with his wife and two children.

Timoteo was a Bible student but also worked at the mission as a groundskeeper and night watchman. He had come from the jungle with not much more than his family and a passion to study the Bible. Hoping to make life easier, we gave them clothes. But as a kid, I thought our gift was lacking something, so I added a bright yellow fly eye kaleidoscope. It wasn’t much. I won it years earlier with skee-ball tickets at a pizza joint. And all it did was multiply whatever you looked at into “hundreds” of images just like a fly’s eye.

It was a novelty trinket, but Timoteo loved it. He kept walking around the mission looking through it. Some people might consider it to be an insignificant piece of junk, but to Timoteo and his family, it was a treasure.

THE MINISTRY LESSON:
What seems small to you can make a big difference to someone else.

The Intangible
To a non-Christian, an authentic smile from a church parking lot attendant will probably make a bigger impact than the style of the worship music. Your next door neighbor is more likely to attend your church because you are friendly than because the sermon series is “cool.” Sometimes something as small as listening with genuine interest after asking someone about their day is enough to make their day.

The Tangible
According to Kids Against Hunger, a child dies every 2 seconds from malnutrition, starvation, and hunger-related diseases. It only costs $0.23 to buy a child a meal. According to Living Water International, a child dies every 15 seconds because of a lack of clean water. It only costs $0.98 to provide clean, safe water to one person for one year.

A little bit can go a long way.

In case you are wondering what happened to Timoteo, he eventually sold the fly eye kaleidoscope to raise money for ministry. He is a phenomenal Christian example to me. As a pastor, terrorists came to his church and demanded support. He refused. At gun point, they threatened to shoot him, his wife, and children. He said, “It does not matter. We are already dead in Christ.” The terrorists assumed he was crazy and left without harming anyone.

For Discussion:
- What are some little things that you have found make big impacts?