Nomads: The Challenge of Reaching People on the Move

This Month's Articles

Rediscovering the Biblical Church that Can Reach Every People Editorial

Rediscovering the Biblical Church that Can Reach Every People

How do you go about making disciples among a people who are regularly on the move and do not show up for meetings at regular times. What does a church look like and act like when a people are never in one place for very long. Nomadic peoples present the worldwide missionary enterprise with one of its greatest challenge as we seek to foster movements of discipleship and church planting among them.

Tags: nomads

Redescubriendo la Iglesia Bíblica que pueda alcanzar a todos los pueblos Editorial

Redescubriendo la Iglesia Bíblica que pueda alcanzar a todos los pueblos

¿Cómo conseguir discípulos entre personas que están en continuo movimiento y que a horarios regulares no se presentan a las reuniones? ¿Cuándo un pueblo no permanece en un mismo lugar por mucho...

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Tags: church-planting movements, nomads, spanish

Why Focus on Nomads? Feature

Why Focus on Nomads?

It’s clear to many nomadic workers that something needs to change. Nomads are not lost because they are nomads. They are lost because we don’t send many workers to reach nomads with the good news, and when we do, they often get caught up trying to ‘help’ nomads settle through development schemes as if that was required to be saved.

Tags: nomads

¿Por qué enfocarnos en los nómadas? Feature

¿Por qué enfocarnos en los nómadas?

En el Sahel africano, unas 100 personas se reunieron para escuchar a un conocido predicador sobre el Movimiento de Discipulado o DMM (Disciple-Making Movements). Después de la enseñanza, uno de los...

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Tags: disciple-making movements, nomadic, nomads

What is a Nomad? Feature

What is a Nomad?

Fundamentally, ‘What is a nomad?’ and why is that significant. It is important to understand that nomadism is not simply defined by mobility - though mobility is a factor as we shall see – but rather by worldview. This means that not all who are on the move (migrant laborers and refugees for example) are nomads. It also means that some settled peoples are actually, really nomads.

Tags: nomads

¿Qué es un nómada? Feature

¿Qué es un nómada?

Estuve hablando con un colega que desde hace poco tiempo trabaja con una tribu nómada en el África subsahariana. "Este grupo es nómada porque no tienen una fuente de agua corriente. Si podemos...

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Tags: nomad, nomadic, nomadism

Here, There, or Far Away Feature

Here, There, or Far Away

It’s All About Relationship

Looking around the room, we realized that 8 or 9 other guests were already there, sharing traditional mint tea and conversation. Some of them were people we knew, men we had met in the neighborhood or as students in our English classes. We greeted one another, and our host made this memorable comment: “Until now you have been meeting the children. Today you have met the father.” Without being aware of it, we had been building relationships with members of the same clan, and had now met their leader.

Tags: nomads

Aquí, allí o más allá. Feature

Aquí, allí o más allá.

Todo tiene que ver con las relaciones

Una tarde cuando veníamos caminando a casa desde el mercado por la carretera, adelantamos a un anciano y nos detuvimos para intercambiar los saludos formales. Se sorprendió al descubrir que unos...

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Tags: families, nomadic, nomads, relationships

Breaching An Invisible Boundary Feature

Breaching An Invisible Boundary

Mobilizing People to Reach Their Own Society's Nomads

Throughout Africa, the Americas, and much of Asia the relationship between mobile people groups and sedentary ones is at best tense, often antagonistic and sometimes even violent. Differences between how the groups utilize resources produce humanly irreconcilable conflicts between them.

Tags: nomads

Derribar una Barrera Invisible Feature

Derribar una Barrera Invisible

Movilizar a la Gente para que Lleguen a los Nómadas en su Propia Sociedad

En mis primeros quince años de trabajo de campo en América Latina, llegué a comprender que la tarea última de las misiones se lleva a cabo mejor a hombros de cristianos locales bien discipulados....

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Tags: central asia, mobilizing, mongolia, nomad, nomadic

The Nomad Challenge Feature

The Nomad Challenge

Say Yes to Nomads

In many ways nomads have been overlooked and forgotten by the church and missionaries alike. They live in remote, difficult places and are hard to access, let alone live among. Nomads can’t be reached in a typical fashion, and especially not from missionary compounds. Nomads won’t come to us. We must go to them. In order to reach them, it will require intentional sacrifices of time, space and comfort. The missionary who wants to reach nomads must to some degree become a nomad himself.

Tags: nomad

El Desafío Nómada Feature

El Desafío Nómada

Diga Sí a los Nómadas

Imagine un pueblo en movimiento, un pueblo que no tiene un hogar permanente, un pueblo cuya identidad está ligada a sus animales y cuya supervivencia depende de la disponibilidad de los pastos para...

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Tags: mobilization, niger, nomads, poem

When They Don’t Show Up Feature

When They Don’t Show Up

“We have heard some stories about Jesus on the radio,” they said, referring to a daily broadcast on a local station. “Lots of people in our village—maybe 40 people—want to know more. We want to understand. But there is also opposition, so we don’t want you to come to us. That would cause problems. So, can you teach us about Jesus so that we can go home and teach our people?”

Tags: nomads

Cuando Ellos No Aparecen Feature

Cuando Ellos No Aparecen

Una tarde sofocante durante la estación caliente en Níger, alguien llamó a mi puerta, al abrir me encontré a dos jóvenes procedentes de mi aldea favorita. ¡No los conocía, pero ellos si me conocían...

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Tags: fulani, niger, nomad, nomadic

Nomads: Helping Them to Face the Growing Challenges Feature

Nomads: Helping Them to Face the Growing Challenges

I grew up as a nomadic pastoralist in The Horn of Africa. Today I work among my people, catalyzing the formation of the church while addressing the various challenges of change among the people. These challenges are macro in scale, usually causing disturbances to nomadic lifestyle and systemic poverty. There are natural and intentional challenges.

Tags: nomads

Nómadas: Ayudándoles a Hacer Frente a los Desafíos Crecientes Feature

Nómadas: Ayudándoles a Hacer Frente a los Desafíos Crecientes

Crecí como pastor nómada en el Cuerno de África. Hoy trabajo entre mi pueblo, catalizando la formación de la iglesia y abordando los diversos retos de cambio entre la gente. Estos retos son a...

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Tags: development, muslim, nomadic, nomads, pastoralists

Contextualizing the True Shepherd Feature

Contextualizing the True Shepherd

Developing Creative Strategies to Reach These People on the Move

Not too far from the city where we live, semi-nomadic pastoralists populate the high altitude mountain valleys of Central Asia. These dear people survive through the harshest winters one could imagine by managing large herds of goats and yak. Until now the gospel has not taken root among these Muslims. The primary challenge for high-altitude village ministry has always been how to establish an accepted and valued entry point for an ongoing presence...

Tags: nomads

Contextualizando al Verdadero Pastor Feature

Contextualizando al Verdadero Pastor

Desarrollo de Estrategias Creativas Para Llegar a Estas Personas en Movimiento

No muy lejos de la ciudad donde vivimos, los pastores semi-nómadas pueblan los valles de las altas montañas de Asia Central. Estas queridas personas gracias a las grandes manadas de cabras y yaks a...

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Tags: cnetral asia, contextualization, kyrgyz

Book Review: Boundless Other

Book Review: Boundless

At Pentecost, after Peter preached, how many of his listeners became Christian? When I first heard this question, I thought, “Hmm, Was it 2000 people or was it 3000 people who became Christian?” Bishop helped me to realize that actually the correct answer is zero! This is a trick question! Most of those people woke up that day and called themselves Jews and they went to sleep that night calling themselves Jews.

Tags: book review

The Intangibles of Urgency and Grit Kingdom Kernels

The Intangibles of Urgency and Grit

Jack[1] grasped the bars of his cell door and peered down the hallway. His heart raced as sweat beaded down his forehead. Should he speak or not? As a former soldier, he recalled the cruel horrors...

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Unknowns Create Opportunities Further Reflections

Unknowns Create Opportunities

As Westerners, we like to be safe, secure and stable—the things that provide a foundation to our lives. This includes things like job stability and how to provide for our families and our future.

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