Posted on January 1st, 2009 by Mark Naylor
Tags: apostolic • Church • Cross-Cultural • Ethnic • Missional • Missionary • Missions • Short Term Missions • Sindhi
Categories: Missional Church • Missions
NOTE: Mark is available to work with our FEBBC/Y churches to coach missions committees in their role in leading their local church in the area of missions. Please contact mark.naylor@twu.ca or view Mark’s Coaching page
It is so easy to become distracted! Whenever I come home from my Bible translation trips, I have a number of [...]
Posted on June 1st, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Leadership • Training
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
NOTE: A companion workshop to these articles is available to multi-ethnic churches that provides information, exercises and interaction to encourage the implementation of those disciplines that promote healthy intercultural relationships. Please contact Mark at mark.naylor@twu.ca
Whose rules rule?
In the innovative cultural simulation game, Barnga, created by Sivasailam Thiagarajan, groups of people play a simple card game [...]
Posted on May 1st, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Multicultural • Sindhi
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
NOTE: A companion workshop to these articles is available to multi-ethnic churches that provides information, exercises and interaction to encourage the implementation of those disciplines that promote healthy intercultural relationships. Please contact Mark at mark.naylor@twu.ca
The High Power Distance / Low Power Distance1 Culture Clash
HPD = High Power Distance [...]
Posted on April 8th, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Dialogue • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Leadership • Missions • Multicultural • Sindhi
Categories: Culture and Worldview
NOTE: A companion workshop to these articles is available to multi-ethnic churches that provides information, exercises and interaction to encourage the implementation of those disciplines that promote healthy intercultural relationships. Please contact Mark at mark.naylor@twu.ca
The Power Distance Contrast
In Pakistan there is a strong tradition of “holy men” who are called Pirs. One day I [...]
Posted on November 13th, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Islam • Missions • Training
Categories: Contextualization
Three ways to understand the Bible
My wife, Karen, heard a message by a young woman with no theological training on Jer 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you….” The young woman spoke of the verse as if it was addressed to us today and talked about the plans God has for us. Although [...]
Posted on October 2nd, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Evangelism • Intercultural • Islam • Language • Leadership • Missional • Missions • Short Term Missions • Sindhi • Training • Translation
Categories: Uncategorized
Coordinator of the Centre for Intercultural Leadership Development (CILD)
Mark served along with Karen, his wife, in Pakistan among the Sindhi Muslim people for fourteen years, doing evangelism, church planting and leadership development. He continues with his responsibilities as the supervisor and primary exegete for the Sindhi Old Testament translation project. Here at Northwest Mark’s responsibilities [...]
Posted on August 1st, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Contextualization
“That’s just NOT right!” exclaimed a woman in a Bible study I was conducting. The object of her disapproval was Naomi’s instructions for Ruth to approach Boaz while he was sleeping (see Ruth 3). She was correct in that she recognized the inappropriateness of such an action within our society. She was [...]
Posted on July 1st, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Leadership • Training
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
(This is an edited reprint from FEBInternational’s publication “Focal Point”)
“There are too few trained leaders!” This statement jumped out at me from my browser one morning a short while ago. Although the Operation World web page was referring to Burkina Faso, this statement describes many countries with thousands of young Christians [...]
Posted on May 5th, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Multicultural • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
What is culture? There is a current debate (National Post, March 2-, 2007) about whether fashion should be classified as culture, with implications for government funding. Canada has policies promoting “multiculturalism.” I have read books and heard sermons concerning the need for Christians to remain separate from “the prevailing culture.” [...]
Posted on June 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Bible Translation
Accuracy requires a single standard
I remember seeing an ad for a new translation of the Bible claiming to be the “most accurate translation” available today. Although a good marketing tactic, it is less than honest because accuracy in Bible translation is relative to the underlying philosophy and goals of the translation. [...]
Posted on May 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Islam • Language • Missionary • Missions • Sindhi • Training • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part V: Theological Basis for “Christ centered worldviews”
What would this worldview look like if Christ was Lord?
I remember the time a young believer brought a friend to me so that I could explain the gospel to him. We were living among the Muslim Sindhi people of Pakistan working with [...]
Posted on April 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part IV: The Benefits of “Christ-centered worldviews”
When translating the Old Testament in the Sindhi language of Pakistan or when teaching from the Old Testament to Sindhis I am constantly amazed at the similarities of culture and worldview. One believer enthusiastically exclaimed to me, “The reason why we understand the [...]
Posted on February 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Evangelism • Intercultural • Religion • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part II: Worldview Clarification
Worldview distinct from Theology
In these articles I am arguing that we should speak of “Christ centered worldviews” in the plural, rather than claim that there is only one “Christian worldview” that is correct to which all people should conform. It is important to realize that “worldview” is very [...]
Posted on January 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Missions • Sindhi • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part I: Communication within worldviews
It is quite common to come across the phrase “The Christian Worldview” in evangelical writings. I believe that this phrase is unhelpful and misleading particularly for those involved in cross-cultural missions and I would propose an alternative. I believe that we should instead speak of “Christ [...]
Posted on October 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Missions • Short Term Missions • Training
Categories: Missions
A team of Canadian youth was involved with young people from another culture for an intense two weeks of ministry in children’s camps. They came back excited and impacted, but apart from relief at their safe return home, the church and parents showed little interest in the effect that experience had [...]
Posted on September 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Evangelism • Language • Leadership • Mentoring • Missional • Missionary • Missions • Training
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
The Need for Cross-cultural Leadership Training:
Why FEBInternational is developing
the CLTP program
“We no longer need ‘general practitioner’ missionaries here.” This comment from an experienced FEBI missionary points to an important reality in missions today: the need for quality personnel who can provide “value added” ministry. A guiding principle to validate [...]
Posted on August 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Contextualization • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Missionary • Missions • Sindhi • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Contextualization
Contextualization is an important part of missiology. This is the process of discovering culturally appropriate means of communicating the transforming power of the gospel. Authenticity requires the missionary to live out the gospel with integrity according to the assumptions and priorities of his or her own culturally shaped worldview. However, [...]
Posted on May 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Islam • Language • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Islam
A recent book review in the Evangelical Baptist (March / April 2005, p. 20) on the book Ishmael: My brother - A Christian Introduction to Islam, contained the provocative statement, “from a biblical vantage point, Allah does not exist.” Such a claim is based on the reality that Allah is not [...]
Posted on March 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Evangelism • Leadership • Missional • Missionary • Missions
Categories: Missions
The Fear of Dilution
I was recently talking with a colleague who voiced a concern about the expanding understanding of missions in some of our more missional churches. The missions committee at his church expressed the desire to incorporate local evangelistic and social efforts under the broad umbrella of “missions.” My [...]
Posted on December 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Contextualization • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Evangelism • Language • Missionary • Religion
Categories: Contextualization
Learning to be an effective change agent for Jesus Christ in another culture is the goal of a missionary. This can be mistakenly reduced to methods of communicating the gospel message which do not reflect sufficient appreciation or validation of the existing culture. Cross-cultural ministry is not a matter of learning [...]
Posted on October 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Missions • Pluralism • Religion
Categories: Culture and Worldview
In Canada we live in a pluralistic (1) society. How are we as Christians to respond to different philosophies, lifestyles, religions and cultures? What is the right attitude for those who believe in the exclusive claims of Christ? Should we appreciate other people’s cultures? Should we appreciate other people’s religious [...]
Posted on June 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Dialogue • Evangelism • Islam • Missions • Religion • Sindhi
Categories: Culture and Worldview
In Pakistan we lived next door to a mosque. The Maolvi (Muslim clergy) and I would occasionally talk and one day I gave him a New Testament to read. The next time we met he informed me that "this is not God’s Word. But it contains God’s Word." Further clarification revealed [...]
Posted on May 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Missionary • Missions
Categories: Missions
Implications for the Church Oriented Sending Agency
The Partnership Trend
Stemming from a college professor’s interest in his international students, members from a local church began to build relationships with families from that people group. Some of the church members went on to minister full time to these people in their homeland. [...]
Posted on March 1st, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Ethnic • Leadership • Missionary • Missions • Short Term Missions
Categories: Missions
Proactive Churches in Missions
It was only a decade ago that common wisdom for finding support for missionaries said, "Forget the churches and focus on individual contacts." Some missions organizations even encouraged their members to use the churches as a means for raising individual support. In this way they sometimes [...]
Posted on January 3rd, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Mentoring • Missionary • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
Before my wife, Karen, and I went to Pakistan in 1985 we learned the LAMP (Language Acquisition Made Practical) method of language learning. Although I often wished the course had been better tailored to suit my ability (perhaps LAMPSSSSS - Language Acquisition Made Perfectly Smooth Sailing for the Simple minded [...]
Posted on October 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Mentoring • Religion • Sindhi • Training • Worldview
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
<p>While we were learning the Sindhi language in Pakistan during the 1980s my wife, Karen, tried to discover the word for "share" and was given a word essentially equivalent to the English "give". The problem was that "share" is a concept based on a principle of individual ownership and the permission required for another to [...]
Posted on September 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Dialogue • Language • Leadership • Mentoring • Missionary • Missions • Training • Translation
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
The people in the best position to teach others are those who are actually involved in doing the task that needs to be taught. This conviction is behind the goal of creating an experience-based mentored environment for the training of cross-cultural ministers through Northwest Baptist Seminary (www.nbseminary.com/), located on the [...]
Posted on August 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural
Categories: Missions
Even though in our churches, salvation in Christ is primarily described in terms of justice and mercy using the analogy of a celestial court, the focus of justice as a major issue for society is often overshadowed in Evangelical circles by other concerns. The death of thousands of infants through [...]
Posted on July 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Evangelism • Missionary • Missions
Categories: Missions
"Don’t plant churches, plant ministries!"
In our recent BC convention (May, 2003) Dr. Ray Bakke challenged us to reach the city for Christ. At one point he said "Don’t plant churches, plant ministries!" Focus on meeting the needs of people in practical ways and the transforming power of the cross will [...]
Posted on June 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Evangelism • Islam • Leadership • Missionary • Missions • Sindhi
Categories: Contextualization
Karen and I worked in evangelism and church planting for 10 years among the Sindhi Muslim people in Pakistan. Although our goal was to plant a church and a number of Sindhis became followers of Christ, we were not successful in establishing a "3-selfs" church (self-governing, self-supporting, self-propogating). Whenever we [...]
Posted on May 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Islam • Language • Missionary • Sindhi • Training • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
The Perfect Translation Illusion
The translation of Scripture into other languages is a cross-cultural mission activity that enjoys enthusiastic support in evangelical circles. But curiously this support is coupled with wide spread ignorance concerning what constitutes an accurate Bible translation. There seems to be an illusion that the perfect translation is [...]
Posted on April 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Evangelism • Islam
Categories: Evangelism
As an evangelical I cringe when evangelism is described as "humanizing," as if the focus of salvation has somehow changed from what God has done for us in Christ, to what we are to accomplish for ourselves. However it is never wise to quickly dismiss another point of view without grappling with the questions [...]
Posted on February 1st, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Missionary • Missions • Pluralism
Categories: Missions
Global technological and political developments have changed the face of the world and altered forever the way the church can participate in God’s work of establishing his kingdom. The great gods of science and secularism of the 20th century are making room for the pluralism and skepticism of the postmodern mind. An increasing [...]