Serving God In A Migrant Crisis

Millions are on the move in today's world, and Christians have a unique perspective on this migrant crisis: after all, Jesus was a refugee. Patrick Johnstone and Dean Merrill help us understand what's causing today's refugee crisis, explore Christian theology and tradition on migration, and show us how Christian workers around the globe are opening their hearts to embrace these modern outcasts.

Millions are on the move in today's world, and Christians have a unique perspective on this migrant crisis: after all, Jesus was a refugee. Patrick Johnstone and Dean Merrill help us understand what's causing today's refugee crisis, explore Christian theology and tradition on migration, and show us how Christian workers around the globe are opening their hearts to embrace these modern outcasts.

You Were Once Strangers Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you invited me in.” (Matthew 25:35) More than two thousand years ago, Jesus challenged us to welcome and care for the strangers among us. How do we fulfill this challenge? What does compassion look like today? A Better Country aims to help Christians—specifically Christians in the United States—think theologically and practically about the ongoing and changing refugee needs. This workbook is divided into six lessons followed by a personal action plan as your application. The second edition includes additional questions for discussion, along with spiritual practices at the end of each chapter for transformation of mind, heart, and soul in our posture toward refugee welcome. This resource balances information and reflection that will stimulate excellent group discussions and individual study. May you be inspired to action, and may you develop a heart to welcome refugees with compassion and dignity in Jesus’s name.

Our world is facing an enormous and unprecedented challenge. The migration crisis affects nearly eighty million people and represents a humanitarian catastrophe. How can we ignore the suffering of men, women, and children who are forcibly displaced worldwide? The book, Changing Stories, helps the reader to reflect on the migration crisis from a biblical perspective. It evaluates refugee ministry ongoing initiatives among the world's most vulnerable people. Additionally, it analyzes the refugee ministry that the Arsenal Hill Presbyterian Church is developing with refugees from Syria, Iraq, the Congo, and Vietnam. The analysis uses as a framework the Best Practices for Christian Ministry among Forcibly Displaced People document proposed by the Refugee Highway Partnership (RHP). Throughout the book, the author answers the following questions: -How complex is the current migration crisis? -What does the Scripture say about displaced people? -What are some of the available tools for a refugee ministry? -How does a refugee ministry look in a local church? -What are some of the best practices for a refugee ministry? The book tells many stories of refugees from different backgrounds, which will help you hear voices representing hundreds of thousands of refugees who go unheard.

For the first time ever, more people now live in cities than outside them. Journey with veteran researcher and missiologist Patrick Johnstone and Dean Merrill as they explore the fastest growing cities and megacities in the world. Explore God's heart for the city and meet pastors, missionaries, and community workers who are addressing urbanization's key challenges.

World Relief staffers Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang move beyond the rhetoric to offer a Christian response to immigration. With careful historical understanding and thoughtful policy analysis, they debunk myths about immigration, show the limits of the current immigration system, and offer concrete ways for you to welcome and minister to your immigrant neighbors.

Today’s refugee crisis has engulfed public policy and politics in countries around the world, deeply dividing communities. With increased migration many fear terrorism, crime and a dilution of their perceived national identity, while others embrace it as an inevitable reality of the globalized world in which we live. But what does the Bible have to say about migration and displacement and how refugees, migrants, and the stateless should be treated? Strangers in the Kingdom asks why God cares for the displaced, presenting biblical, theological, and missiological foundations for ministries to those who have been uprooted from their homes and all that is familiar. Rupen Das and Brent Hamoud apply their experience and expertise to provide timely answers that the Christian community is waiting to hear. Addressing the humanitarian and legal needs of the displaced is the starting point, but relief, repatriation, and resettlement programs need to help the stranger find a place to belong, a place to call home.

"A systematic look at migration that seeks to reimagine the operative political, social, and cultural narratives of immigration through a Eucharistic theology"--

This study aims to help Christians-specifically Christians in the United States-think theologically and practically about the global refugee crisis.The workbook is divided into seven lessons, including a Personal Action Plan as your concluding application. You can do the lessons on your own or in a group setting. You will probably find the greatest benefit by working through the workbook with others and hearing other perspectives.

God is at work among refugees everywhere. Will you join? Refugee Diaspora is a contemporary account of the global refugee situation and how the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ is shining brightly in the darkest corners of the greatest crisis on our planet. These hope-filled pages of refugees encountering Jesus Christ presents models of Christian ministry from the front lines of the refugee crisis and the real challenges of ministering to today’s refugees. It includes biblical, theological, and practical reflections on mission in diverse diaspora contexts from leading scholars as well as practitioners in all major regions of the world.