The Priesthood of all Believers

The Operation World Handbook is full of statistics about the number of Christians and mission activities, other faiths, economic, political and social information per country. A glimpse at the global picture is as follows:

Total Population: 6,908,000,000 (nearly 7 billion people)
People living in cities: 51% (over half of these 7 billion people live in cities now)
Largest Religion: Christianity 2.2 billion of us!! (31% of the population)

I wonder how many churches this means there are? Speaking to a Christian leader in Ethiopia a few years ago, I was told that there was a church in every single village, town and city throughout Ethiopia!

The local church embedded in communities around the world – what better or greater agent of change can we possibly envisage than this?!

The fact is in many communities Christianity has been reduced to a religion of worship of the sacred, carried out behind closed doors, dependent on a group of elite specialists who are dedicated to institutional styled services catering for the spiritual needs of Christians only.

We can exacerbate this through provision of aid by “professionals” only. Don’t get me wrong, we need to serve with quality and high standards, not simply because of some international quality standard, but because we serve the Almighty Living God, who has called us to serve those he loves and care for his creation.

The vision we have in Micah Network is to see the whole church (that is each and every Christian within each and every local church) as an agent of integral mission (engaged as agents of change) in all areas of life and creation. The priesthood of all believers!

The Global Consultation in September 2012 will be focusing on the implications of this vision. Integral Mission and the Community: local church, local change, global impact.
Imagine with me that 2.2 billion Christians embraced their role as agents of change in their community. Imagine if 2.2 billion Christians campaigned together for their governments to reform and care for their poor and marginalised. It would be a revolution.

We invite you to join in the discussion pre consultation on how we can be more effective in this mission, be a part of the Consultation in September and share the burden, be the change we long to see.

Warm Regards
Sheryl Haw
International Director

Global Consultation: Register Now!

Theme: Integral Mission and the Community: local church, local change, global impact

Date: 10th to 14th September 2012

Location: Thun, Switzerland

Registration is open. Download your registration form, complete it and return to: events@micahnetwork.org

If you are from a country that will require a Schengen visa to attend this consultation, we encourage to apply early so as to not be disappointed by delays.

Proclamation: Ethical Evangelisation

The first of the pre consultation discussions have started and can be joined in through the Micah Network web site, under forums.

JusTice MA Survey

Redcliffe Bible College have asked Micah Network members to participate in a survey that will greatly help them in their planning of train courses on Justice and Advocacy. Please follow this link now and quickly do this brief survey form them and be a part of helping this initiative develop well.

Thank you in advance: Complete by Friday 23rd March if possible. It only takes 5 minutes and has 10 questions.

CCIH Annual Conference

Health – Lifestyles – Christian Values: Pioneering Global Health Solutions in the 21st Century.

Dates: 8th to 10th June 2012

Location: Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia, USA

For more information see below:

About CCIG
Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) is a diverse network of 165 organisations and 300 individuals who link up to discuss areas of mutual interest around the topic of international health. Their vision is to promote global health and wholeness from a Christian perspective.

Amahoro Gathering 2012

Conversation theme: The Bible: Library for African Transformation

Dates: 21st to 25th May 2012

Location: Bujumbura, Burundi

The Amahoro Africa annual gathering provides a place of mutual learning for African andnon-African leaders involved in innovative ministries that build disciple-making communities with an emphasis on justice and mercy. This year the theme is The Bible: A Library for African Transformation. It will be especially exciting to engage the Bible on African soil and think about these stories in light of African realities. These ancient stories have so much to offer African leaders who engage their communities every day, stories about real life in real villages and lessons learned and lessons still to be learnt as we compare to our countries.

For more information see here.

People Trafficking Consultation

Dates: 18th to 21st June 2012

Location: Córdoba, Argentina

Objectives: to contribute to dialogue and theological reflection on the problems of trafficking and trafficking in persons; to raise the awareness of trafficking in the churches and Christian NGOs; to promote the exchange of good practices in addressing the problem of trafficking, and create a network of churches and NGOs working in prevention, foster care and assistance to victims of trafficking

For more information contact: cyc@kairos.org.ar

Faith & AIDs 2012: taking action together

Dates: 20th to 21st July 2012

Location: Washington DC, USA

Join with 750 religious leaders, faith-based representatives, young people and people living with HIV in reflecting, sharing and networking ahead of the 19th International AIDS Conference. For more information

Child Protection

In our last Integral Mission Conversation in Zambia (November 2011) participants request further information on developing and implementing a Child Protection (CP) Policy. Aneeta from Tearfund UK (Global Advisor on Child Protection) has provided us with the following links for resources. If you require advice and support to draft your CP Policy please do let us know. The resources we link to below are to give you an idea of what has been done by others and we recommend that you use them to help develop your own. Please do attribute the sources you use.
For your info, the Summary of Tearfund's CP policy are easily downloadable is several languages here. We do not encourage NGOs or partners to cut and paste this but to develop their own. If they are going to take any part of the TF's policy - they should inform us and  acknowledge TF on their copy. Other resources that are useful for your partners:

1. Tearfund UK’s Child Protection Policy (available in several languages)

2. Keeping Children Safe Coalition for any organisation or body

3. Churches Child Protection Advisory Service

4. Global Connections for Christian organisations

5. Viva's Celebrating Children workbooks (one of it is on child protection)

Vacancies

Vacancy: Chief Development Officer
American Leprosy Mission (www.leprosy) are seeking the right person to fill the role of Chief Development Officer. For a full description of this role download here

Vacancy: Director of Ministry
FEBA UK are seeking a person to fill this important position. For further information see here