Dorothy told Toto, “I have a feeling we aren’t in Kansas anymore.” I’d say what used to be Kansas isn’t Kansas anymore.

No town, large or small, remains unaffected. Our world has changed drastically in the past several decades, so much that church ministry everywhere in both the U.S. and Canada (especially Canada), not to mention the rest of the Western world, has become cross-cultural missionary work. Some of it has to do with new people groups coming our way through immigration, but much of it has to do with transitions in Western culture itself.

Pastors can only remain true to their calling by seeing themselves as cross-cultural missionary leaders. Their work was challenging enough already; now it’s really daunting. No one can change it by hoping it isn’t so, though, so how’s a pastor to keep up? Through teamwork with others, of which I hope to be one. With this podcast and the accompanying blog post I’m narrowing my season-long focus on “Heat to Light: From Cultural Conflict to Spiritual Transformation” even tighter. I’m here to serve pastors as they serve the Lord and his church, specifically through:

1. Explainers for pastors on recent cultural trends,
2. Specific practical ministry applications related to those trends, and
3. Sample sermons pastors may freely borrow from.

That’s the portion of today’s new ministry trends I’m qualified to help with. It’s coming soon, starting next weekend. This episode explains the reasons why. It’s the challenge of cross-cultural missionary work, brought home to us in the United States.

If this is encouraging to you, I strongly suggest you also look at the sample chapter I’m giving away free from my latest book, Too Good to be False: How Jesus’ Incomparable Character Reveals His Reality. Download it at ThinkingChristian.net!