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Headspace - Thailand - Wk 2

The team teaches English in a high school. This school is less open to the gospel; however over time the teams have formed relationships and built up trust and so are able to share more freely about the gospel of Jesus. During this time the team will run English camps and have opportunities to share the gospel through the team dramas.Pray that the team would be able to jump into their first teaching experience with courage and confidence. Pray that relationships that have been built over the yea...

New Van For CBCCC PNG

Titahi Bay Community Church is seeking to partner the National Office of the Christian Brethren Churches in Papua New Guinea in raising funds to purchase a new van to be used in Wewak. The present one is now more than ten years old and has served CBC very well, operating in what is a very harsh environment. The CBC National Office in Wewak serves a group of over 460 CBC churches, the majority of which are in remote locations in the West Sepik Province and in the He la Province of the Highlands R...

Headspace - Thailand - Wk 1

The team attends daily Thai language and culture classes, while also getting familiar with Chiang Mai. In this time there are opportunities for the team to see Thai culture in action and test out their new language skills.Pray that the team adjusts well to a new culture and time-zone and that the leaders would be able to help the team adjust while still having time to organize and plan logistically in a different environment....

Do You Care For Unreached People Groups

Wouldn’t you think that after more than 2,000 years of evangelisation that the world’s population would have been reached by now, if they indeed are to be reached at all? The sad reality is that not all of the world’s population of 7 billion people has been reached. As Christ’s followers we should be concerned about the people who we have never met and are on their way to lost eternity. There are millions around us who also have not heard the Gospel of Christ. According to the Joshua Pro...

Preparing A Team For Their Time Offshore

It is often difficult to describe our job as Headspace leaders. After explaining that we work with school leavers and serve for ten weeks in Thailand some say, “That sounds so exotic!” Don’t get me wrong. I love Thailand and I LOVE leading our teams, but there is little exotic about the trip or the preparation! I am excited to invite you into our Headspace community and share what we do to transform a diverse bunch of teenagers into an effective, unified team who can work in what often pro...

The Gospel Speaks to all Cultures

Have you ever tried to share your faith with someone froma different culture? Did they seem confused by some of the concepts you were sharing? Have you ever wondered if you could be communicating more clearly or in a way that connected better with their cultural background and heritage? Jayson Georges' newly released book, The 3D Gospel – Ministry in Guilt, Shame and Fear Cultures, suggests three cultural lenses that impact our view of the world around us. They are: Guilt/Innocence – Western...

The Tension Of Being Missional

I come across pastors and leaders that describe their churches as being "missional" and that God has brought people into their communities that need to be reached. They have made a decision to pull back on their global mission support to help their people "be missionaries right here." This begs the question, "Why are so many missional Christians uninvolved in God's global mission?" As the missional conversation continues and deepens, what has occurred that has led to our blindness to the lost wo...

GCAid Report - Let's Celebrate

Thank you to all who have contributed to our disaster relief appeals and provided for on-going humanitarian needs, your gifts have made a difference in the lives of those who have benefited from your generosity....

Is Hospitality the Key to Missions?

Many Christians have grown up with a very limited concept of "missions" and "missionaries." In this view a missionary is a person who goes and preaches to lots of people, often in primitive lands, and explains the theology of the gospel. The natives are convinced and become Christians. Thus the gospel commission is fulfilled. Actual missions have not been carried out in this way very much. Missionaries are generally very aware of the personal aspect of their activities, and the importance of hos...

Scatter and take your job with you

A new book, "Scatter", gives guidance for Market Place MissionGod is at work today in the global marketplace, providing avenues for a new generation to advance the Great Commission through their workplace. In his new book "Scatter: Go Therefore and Take Your Job With You," Andrew Scott outlines a new paradigm to do just that, engaging the global church to reach the nations through their everyday jobs. Scott invites every Christian to be God's global image bearer, and to find their part in God's ...

After the Mission Trip

You’re back from the mission trip and after all the shared stories and pictures and some intentional debrief, you soon slide back into the busyness of life. Over time, you resign yourself to the lie that only on mission trips do amazing things happen and you, like many others, start living mission trip to mission trip. The liminal experience of being outside of your comfort zone and growing tremendously during your trip is all but forgotten and the rich soil of community that was cultivated am...

Business as Mission Resources

The 'Global Think Tank on Business as Mission' has been bringing people together to learn more about the strategy of business as mission since it launched in 2012. The Think Tank is now releasing a series of equipping papers and reports for those interested in Business as Mission.Each of the reports covers a particular topic or geographical region and has involved collaboration by BAM leaders worldwide. Topic-focused reports published so far are: Business as Mission and Church Planting, Franchis...

Help Your Church Pray for the World

Operation World Leaders Resources: 10 Simple Ideas to Help You Lead Your Church in Prayer for the Nations.Prayer is important and God calls us to pray for the nations, but there are so many needs. How to start? What can you do that will authentically fit into your church community? What is sustainable long-term; rather than just a short fad? The resource Operation World Enhanced eBook CD/ DVD and Wall Map has been developed to help with these very questions. Now here are some ideas to help you g...

Renewing Our Mission

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Statement Of Faith

We believe each statement in this affirmation to be consistent with the teaching of scripture. We believe that there is only One True God, revealed in the Trinity of the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit to each of whom equal honour is due. We uphold firmly God's three-in-oneness believing that almost everything that matters in Christianity hangs on this truth. We are committed to bringing all people into a living, personal and ever-growing relationship with God. We believe the B...

Returning to NZ Permanently?

A GUIDE FOR CHURCHES AND MISSION PARTNERSWhen Your Mission Partner Comes HomeYOUR MISSION PARTNER is about to return home from their service for God overseas. All sorts of arrangements need to be put in place. Whose responsibility is it to ensure these arrangements are made? Is it something the mission partner should sort out? Or should their family or sending church take care of it?Very often, church leaders will assume that the mission partner and their family will sort it out between them. Ho...

Terms & Conditions

If for any reason a refund is required from GC3 please contact us with the details of the amount, date and name which the donation was given under. Any refunds of donations will be given at the discretion of GC3 and decided on a case by case basis. If you have any questions about requesting a refund please contact us....

Is God Calling You?

The use of a letter to introduce a Christian worker to a church was a well established practice in New testament times. A ‘Letter of Commendation’ was a way of expressing confidence in a person as they travelled and embarked in mission and enabled the receiving church or ministry to accept them with confidence.Fast-forward to today’s world where communication methods are vastly different. With the click of a button we can connect with people anywhere in an instant, but even so at GC3 we be...

Our History

GCiM commenced operating on behalf of the Christian Brethren Assembly network in January 2001 as an amalgamation of Missionary Services New Zealand and Gospel Literature Outreach. While Global Connections in Mission (GCiM) is a recently formed mission organisation, its roots go back more than 100 years. New Zealand's first commended Assembly missionary was James Kirk who sailed for South America in 1896 and served the Lord there for 56 years. Soon after a magazine called "The Treasury" was publi...

What’s In A Call?

Whenever you talk to Christians about missions, there’s always talk about the “call”. I’ve always found it a rather intimidating word. I don’t hear God directly speak to me in an audible voice or feel completelycertain about what I feel He says. I don’t want to put words in God’s mouth, or overstate the surety of a situation. So I find it difficult to say I feel “called” to work in PNG. Yet there is a real sense that that is where I am meant to be, what I was made to do. I was ...

I want to be a missionary

If you feel God is calling you to serve Him in a full-time capacity, what do you do? Eleven important steps to follow – 1. Thank God for the prompting of His Spirit and ask Him for the faith and courage you will need. Paul's phrases in Ephesians 2:10 are a good base for this kind of prayer. 2. Check that your desire to do this is clearly from God and that you are not just running away from something that's currently a problem in your life. Establishing that it is a call of God is essential, ju...

Post-Modern Missions & Millennials

Without doubt millennials are an integral part of world missions today and thankfully their approach to missions is changing the missions landscape in ways that are well suited for addressing the challenge of post-modern missions. Before we explore this issue further let’s understand who millennials are.  It is generally accepted that the term ‘Millennials’ (Generation Y) is usually considered to apply to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century. They live...

Mobile Ministry Course

Here is an online course in using mobile technology for ministry and mission.The Mobile Ministry Training Course is a newly expanded, six-week online course to introduce ministry opportunities using mobile devices. By 2015, the majority of all Internet access will be through mobile devices.This presents a unique, two-way communication channel to use for Kingdom advancement.Each week contains both theoretical and practical elements. The only requirements: an Internet connection, a computer, and a...

New Ways Of Working

Where are the workers we need in our churches? Who will go?  While we face challenges in terms of sending missionaries to  new and changing contexts overseas we are noting the changes here in New Zealand.The harvest is ripe and there are Christians overseas who are being called to come and serve here as missionaries. We see this with our Kenyan brother and sister who are serving here as pastors at Ingestre Street in Whanganui. Just this last week one of our churches has received a Braz...

Visiting Africa

Every time I visit Africa I am told tragic stories about children and young people not able to get to school, mainly for economic reasons. It’s a major issue and very complicated.  Linda is a school teacher; a good school teacher. Her pastor noticed many children in the church neighbourhood were not going to school. Research he undertook suggested that many older children did not go to school because heir parents could not afford to send them. To address this, the pastor asked Linda to st...