MinistryWatch Podcast Warren Smith and Natasha Smith

A conversation with Scott Harris of Mission Increase

A couple of months ago I came across an article that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. It’s called “The End and Future of the Church/”Para-Church” Relationship: A Call for Generous Partnership.”

The article was written by two people I have come to respect a great deal in the past few years. One of them is Amy Sherman, who has written a number of important books on the Christian response to poverty. Her co-author is my guest today, Scott Harris. Scott is the Vice President of Church and Global Engagement for an organization called Mission Increase. Mission Increase exists to equip donors, nonprofits and churches fulfill their God-given mission and increase their Kingdom impact through training, and coaching. Scott’s specific role is to help churches and nonprofits work better together to reach their neighbors and nations.

It’s hard to find a mission statement more in line with the goals of MinistryWatch than that one, and that may be why I’ve been running into Scott all over the place in the past few years, including at the most recent True Charity conference, which we’ve written several stories about in the past few months. Some of you might also remember that MinistryWatch did a short series of articles on generous churches, churches that are doing outsized projects with their missions dollars. Scott was instrumental in helping us identify those churches and helped us make contact with them.

In the article we discuss today, Scott and Amy say that the current state of church/parachurch relationships is a major hindrance to the effective work of the Body of Christ in Jesus’ Kingdom Mission in our day. They explain why and how this is so, and what we can do about it.



To read for yourself the article we discussed, click here:

https://missionincrease.org/churches/#para-church

To read more about Mission Increase, see a 2020 article we did on this ministry:

https://ministrywatch.com/teach-a-ministry-to-fish/

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Task Force will be ending next week…without any names on its website of pastors credibly accused of abuse…and with no clear path forward. We’ll take a look.

And, Salem Media Group pulls Dinesh D’Souza’s movie ‘2000 Mules’ from all its streaming platforms. We’ll have details.

Plus, a Texas United Methodist megachurch announces it will continue to NOT host same-sex weddings at its facilities. This, despite the denomination’s ruling last month that lifted the ban on LGBTQ clergy and weddings.

But first, another former Kanakuk Kamp staffer has been arrested for child sexual assault. 46-year-old Matthew Harmon was arrested on May 28, 2024.

Harmon was wanted for the sexual assault of a child in 2007 when he was a teacher and coach at the Providence School in Dallas. He turned himself in to the Dallas County jail, the police department told MinistryWatch. Harmon worked summer camps at Kanakuk in Durango, Colorado, and Kanakuk in Branson, Missouri, beginning in 1995 through the mid-2000s.

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Brittany Smith, Bob Smietana, Yonat Shimron, Adelle Banks, Daniel Ritchie, Bethany Starin, Jeffrey Walton, Jessica Eturralde, and Robyn Spradlin.

A special thanks to The Institute on Religion & Democracy for contributing material for this week’s podcast.

Until next time, may God bless you.

Karl Vaters is not against bigness on principle. He is quick to point out that large churches can use their size to do things that smaller churches simply cannot.

But he also says that the things that big churches do better are few, and that getting big, pursuing growth, often comes at great financial and spiritual cost.

His new book is called De-Sizing The Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What’s Next. He says that numbers are meant to inform us, not define us, and he goes on to say that our obsession with numbers is literally killing the church and its witness in the world.

Karl Vaters knows of what he speaks. He grew up studying the Church Growth Movement, but he realized that most churches in America have less than 100 members, and that if he really wanted to make a difference, he should put his energies there. In addition to being a pastor, he has written other books, including The Church Recovery Guide, 100 Days to a Healthier Church, and Small Church Essentials. He and his wife Shelley have three children and two grandkids.

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh.

Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, former CEO of Orange, Kristen Ivy, originally admitted to an “inappropriate relationship” with the ministry’s founder Reggie Joiner. Now, she’s reclassifying that relationship as clergy abuse. We’ll have details.

Also, summer is the season of short-term missions—but The Chalmers Center has some warnings before posting about those trips on social media. We’ll take a look.  And, former S-B-C leader and long-time megachurch pastor Ed Young announces he’s retiring.

But first, a young American missionary couple and a ministry leader were killed by gangs in Haiti. Natalie and Davy Lloyd  were American Missionaries working with Missions in Haiti, Inc. and Jude Montis was the Haitian director of the organization Jude Montis. The three, were killed by gang members near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday night (May 23).

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Fiona Andrè, Bob Smietana, Kim Roberts, Brittany Smith, Jessica Eturralde, and Christina Darnell.

Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s MinistryWatch podcast we remember Marshall Allen, an investigative journalist who was a friend and supporter of MinistryWatch.

To read a transcript of this podcast, click here. You’ll also find there links mentioned in today’s episode.

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh.

Until next time, may God blss you.

On today’s program, the U-S Department of Justice has indicted a former professor and interim provost of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for obstructing justice in a sexual misconduct case. We’ll have details.

Also, the Boy Scouts of America changes their name in hopes of boosting its dwindling numbers—but instead, a different scouting ministry is being flooded with requests for more information. We’ll take a look at Trail Life USA later in the program.

And, World Vision is ordered to pay $120-thousand in a discrimination case.

But first, Forerunner Church—the official church of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City—held its last Sunday worship service last week.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Bob Smietana, Tony Mator, Stephen Clark, Theresa, Jessica Eturralde, Clemente Lisi, Marci Seither, Kathryn Post, Brittany Smith, and Christina Darnell.

A special thanks to Religion UnPlugged for contributing material for this week’s program.

Until next time, may God bless you.