andi's perspective

EVANGELICAL EUROPE

One essential contribution to the question of "How Christian is Europe?" is the number of members of evangelical churches. Of course, the BODY is wider than this, but it is nevertheless a very helpful information.
The Missions Atlas Project offers a brand new map on the Global Status of Evangelical Christianity. Very stimulating. Here is a teaser for the Germanic Europe:

Due to its sophisticated people-group based approach, the map is not that easy to read, but it basically shows the % of evangelical membership and combines it with population density (the higher the population in an area, the bigger the circle, notably for cities):

• dark green: >10% evangelical
• light green: >2% evangelical
• yellow/ orange/ red: <2% evangelical
  • yellow: "widespread church planting"
  • orange: "initial church planting"
  • red: "no church planting"

Here is a foto of the full Europe map (credits to Paul).

emRG WIKI

You can view a webpage, share files over a sharepoint, discuss subjects in a forum, author articles in a blog, present information in an elaborate Content Management System (CMS)... But what do you do in order to really create shared knowledge together? How to allow for thousands of people to co-author continually changing and growing information on a subject like "the Kingdom in my area"?
One way we found and got excited about: the WIKI-approach which all of you know through Wikipedia. We explored a series of Wiki variants (like SeedWiki or Mediawiki) on WikiMatrix, and soon found out that structured wikis serve best to provide the combination of wiki and CMS functions that we were looking for. And here we go with the cutting edge of what Wiki development currently holds in store: a TWIKI (pronounce "tweekee").

Now see for yourself where we are at with our own emRG Wiki - for many to collaborate on missions research! Welcome to a work in progress! We are not yet where we want to be in order to offer a full fledged collaborative platform, but we are getting closer every day. Check our WebChanges for the most recent work done. And if you wish - register and join us!
Remember: it's a Wiki - you can change, add or delete all you see. But be aware that everyone else sees what you did. Transparency it's called. So - use the "Sandbox" for testing ;-)

DAWN RESEARCH GLOBAL

In SE London. Just concluded a very fruitful meeting with the new DAWN Global Research Group aiming to support the global DAWN vision of 20 million new churches by the year 2020 (yep, you heard right!) with strategic research. It's great to share experiences and resources with colleagues around the world and to learn from how they pursue research that mobilises for church planting in Africa, Latin America, or India. Jason (Operation World) skyped into the meeting, too. It was good to connect.
"Worldmap" is another GREAT resource for the missional mind. It's basically a global church mapping portal. It's not all that accurate by now, but nevertheless, it's quite impressive.
Thanks to a global family I enjoy superb British hospitality at DAWN friends in an otherwisely unaffordably expensive city :)

 

PROPHETIC ART

As researchers we are constantly gathering data in order to draw detailed pictures of the spiritual situation of our cities, regions and countries. But figures, graphs and barcharts are so live-less.
Where are the prophetic artists that would engage deeply with the spiritual state of the world about them to paint its struggles, highlight its characteristics and celebrate its beauty? Where are the painters, cartoonists,  sculpturers, poets, and musicians to forcefully express the spiritual condition of our regions in both, their hope and their sorrow? Who would paint the "old man Italy" or the "stubborn lady France"? Who would give a face and a voice to subcultures, people groups and geographical identities? Where are the prophetic artists who would help to express the heart of research?

AWESOME GOD

Met up with Jason Mandryk from Operation World last week to talk research interface OW - emRG. Feelings of awe and wonder struck me when I walked around castle Bultsrode, WEC missions headquarter and home to the brave researchers who digest data-mountains for 7 years to prepare our next OW edition.
Wonder for of the stricking beauty of the spring-blossoming castle garden and the majesty of the noble old estate. Awe even more so for God's generosity so overwhelmingly displayed there all around me. It was so obvious that, really, the meek are inheriting the land - even today. Who would expect to find poor, humble, and hard-labouring missionaries faithfully stewarding over this grandious duchy estate 15 minutes from Heathrow London in an area of priceless housing?!
How awesome is our God. And a faithful compensator to all who keep his ways. (Here are some pictures taken with my hugely inadequate cell phone...)

MATRIX SEMINAR

Habe zum Forum GemeindeInnovation ein kleines Forschungsseminar beigetragen: "Ein Gang durch die Matrix". Wer an den (deutschsprachigen) Materialien interessiert ist (ein Demo-Durchgang durch die emRG Matrix mit Beispielsdaten aus dem DACH Raum, die Matrix in deutscher Übersetzung etc.), findet sie hier auf dem emRG blog.
Wenn wir uns mit unserem gesellschaftlichen und gemeindlichen Umfeld auseinandersetzen, kann uns das nicht nur hilfreiche strategische Erkenntnisse geben, sondern auch einen Einblick ins Herz unseres Welt-liebenden Gottes ermöglichen. Leidenschaft für Sein Anliegen - darum geht es bei Missionsforschung. Es ist zuerst Herzenssache und erst sehr viel später Kopfsache.

--- ENGLISH ---
Offered a small research seminar as part of the forum church innovation, called "Walking the Matrix". It gives a demo insight into the emRG matrix for the Germanic area. Materials and short report on the emRG blog.
My core message in this type of setting is that research is all about tapping into the heartbeat of God, starting to see with His eyes and to feel with His heart. It's a heart-matter first, only secondly a brain-thing!

emRG BCN 3

Report on day 3 out there. Watch our new blog - it seems like it's slowly getting to life...
Some random pictures of today:

emRG BCN 2

We just did the second Barcelona day - see here. Jason, Juan and good old Mr.Lincoln (or just Kevin) were just some of the great group of minds and hearts seeking HIS ways together here:

Was a full busy day of hosting a conference with its typical multitude of unforseen mini-medium logistic challenges etc, but found a short time to hurry down to the beach together with Matthias (CE) and enjoy a short cool bath in the Mediterranean under the Spanish sun. Poor Reinhold though had not the best day of his travel-experienced life...

emRG BCN 1

Just posted a day report (emRG Consultation BCN) and links (full presentation) on our fresh emRG blog. Be kind - the blog is a very fresh baby, it's not yet nice...

---
Die emRG Forschungsgruppe hat jetzt einen eigenen Blog, allerdings noch ganz frisch und hässlich... U.a. findet sich ein Report über unser soeben begonnenes emRG Meeting in Barcelona.

TALKING RESEARCH

Ok. It is time. Need to pack and leave for Barcelona to talk research again.
Around 20 missions geeks - frontline church planters, field strategists and researchers - will meet for the 4th emRG Consultation to advance missions strategy in Europe. Judging from the quality of the participants and all the preparation done by my friends  Paul and Scott it will be a highlight. The best of the game: we are located 15 walking minutes from the beach of Castelldefells.
Still hope for Scott that weather forecasts for Barcelona improve since he will sleep on the open balcony for lack of other accomodations ;)

HOTSPOTS IN EUROPE

 

The LORD is at work in His world. And certainly so in Europe . And we will certainly never be able to fully discern what HE is up to at specific points in time - since it seems that our God loves to work under-cover spreading his "potato conspiracy".
Many of these "things to come" that we keep talking about are still largely "under the radar", yet - at times things bubble up and become discernable - for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
The European Spiritual Estimate identifies 5 transborder regions with potentially above-average Gospel-responsiveness . 
Check out the full ESE report freshly released by Scott Friderich, genius researcher with emRG!

DESPERATE EUROPE

According to the European Spiritual Estimate, there is on average only one Gospel-Oriented church  for every 27.749 people on the continent.  The orange areas on the map show nations where there is less than one church for more than 30000 people while the red areas are nations where there is less than one church for every 40.000 people!

Compare this to one church for every 1.766 people in China and one for every 2.413 people in India and Europe starts standing out as today's most desperate mission field!  

Our Archbishop of Research ;) has just released a short article summarizing the ESE results. Only 2 pages - but with the potential to change the way Europe is perceived around the world!! Jeff Fountain comments on it, too.

--- DEUTSCH ---

Nach den Ergebnissen der ESE Schätzung kommt in Europa eine zeugnishafte Gemeinde auf über 27.000 Einwohner. In den oben rot markierten Ländern kämen bis zu 40.000 Menschen auf eine solche Gemeinde. Vergleiche das mit Zahlen aus China (1.766 Einwohner auf eine Gemeinde) oder Indien (2.413) und es wird klar, das Europa Missionsfeld ist!

Hier ist Scotts jüngste englischsprachige Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse.

emRG MATRIX DETAILS

While I am on my way to Cologne, exploring the Neil-Cole approach to organic church planting, the research freaks among you might be interested to delve into the details of the current working status of our developing emRG Matrix. The Matrix is a 3D research framework for ongoing collaborative missions research geared towards the practical interests of the local church planter. It is structured along the traditional Harvest Force - Harvest Field division plus a newly devised Interaction Field. Have a look here (might be necessary to use IE as browser) and enrich the development phase with your feedback!

--- DEUTSCH ---
Bin auf dem Weg nach Köln zum Seminar für organische Gemeindegründung. Bin gespannt.
Forschungsbegeisterte können sich in der Zeit ja mal unsere emRG Matrix näher anschauen. Die Matrix ist ein 3D Forschungsrahmen, der das dauerhafte Zusammentragen von praxisrelevanten Daten durch eine große Menge von Hobbyforschern ermöglichen soll. Hier ist der Arbeitsstand (evtl. IE als Browser nötig). Jedes Feedback willkommen!

USEFUL RESEARCH

Missions research again. And YES - it can be useful for the practical mind. Actually, it needs to!

• Who is reaching out to the Buddhist community in my city?
• What are the most desperately felt needs of the people living in my area?
• What open doors are provided by the local culture for understanding the Gospel? What metaphors are understood? Which pop culture heros can I use for creating understandable kingdom parables?
• Which evangelistic approaches do work with this city's elderly and which don't?
• What are the least evangelized city districts? Or those that are likely most responsive?
• Which gospel communities of my area are happy to support a new missions project?

This is the type of questions that church planters, missionaries, and gospel-minded hearts in general are facing in their day to day efforts to expand the kingdom of God. Not true?

To provide answers on a local detail level like this, we need more than some figures on the "evangelical % per country". And we need more than just a few specialist researchers out there in the clouds. We actually need a "research-movement". We need YOU to contribute to a collective understanding of the Gospel challenges and chances of YOUR neighborhood!

That is what emRG is all about.

--- DEUTSCH ---
Missionsforschung - Wie kann sie auch dem Praktiker nützen?
Wenn sie sehr konkrete alltägliche Fragen beantwortet!

• Wer in meiner Stadt arbeitet unter dem buddhistischen Bevölkerungssegment?
• Welches sind die größten Nöte in meiner Region, für die wahrhaft "gute Nachricht" gebraucht wird?
• Welche verbalen Brücken zur Verkündigung finde ich in der Umgangssprache, in allgemein verstandenen Metaphern oder lokalkulturellen Helden meiner Gegend?
• Welche evangelistischen Methoden fruchten unter der älteren Stadtbevölkerung, welche nicht?
• Welche Stadtteile haben am wenigsten Evangeliumskontakt? Welche würden vermutlich am offensten reagieren?
• Wer würde eine neue Gemeindegründung in der Stadt unterstützen?

Solche Detailfragen können natürlich nur auf Lokalebene beantwortet werden und brauchen deshalb deutlich mehr Manpower. Jeder Strassenzug müsste dazu von Hobbyforschern "adoptiert" werden. emRG träumt von so einer "Forschungsbewegung".

RESEARCH IMPACTS

Missions research is something for the abstract minded strategist only? WRONG!

Meta level research has a HUGE impact on the active church-planter if it tells the world that there is basically no need for the kind of work your are doing...
So it is happening repetitively with the world categorization into "Reached" - "Partially Reached" - "Unreached" acc. to which the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands are ALL "REACHED with the Gospel"! Aren't they???
Such a well-intended misrepresentation of a complex cultural landscape does infact lead to a withdrawal of resources from Europe in order to strategically invest into more "unreached" places. Historically correct, but not only helpful I fear...

--- DEUTSCH ---

Missionsforschung - nur etwas für Theoretiker und Insider?? Mitnichten!

Wenn dem Gemeindegründer oder Missionar die Unterstützung entzogen wird, weil er angeblich unter "schon erreichten Volksgruppen" arbeitet und man doch lieber "strategisch investieren" will, dann hat Forschung auf der internationalen Metaebene sehr spürbare Auswirkung... Manchen globalen Vergleichen zufolge braucht Europa eigentlich keine große Investitionen mehr, da es ja schon "zu über 60% evangelisiert" und damit als "vollständig erreicht" eingestuft ist (Holland z.B. oder die Tschechische Republik... !!??) . In der historischen Perspektive mag das nicht ganz falsch sein. Aber so ist's eben auch nicht nur hilfreich...

emRG-TEAM in BERLIN

Back from business and slightly stressed by too many activities... Need wisdom as to where to start with cutting down some of my involvements...
Tomorrow the emRG Team will meet in Berlin. Looking forward to a fun-work time among great friends :)
Here is a short 2005 emRG summary:
"Looking back on a very fruitful year in facilitating missions research for the future of church multiplication in Europe. Major milestones included significant process on the development of our Research Framework including its practice validation through focus groups with church planters, and the successful run of our first online survey estimating the “Christianness of Europe”. Presentations on the global Lausanne Research Conference and the annual assembly of the Hope for Europe network both gave us a good international visibility and feedback is generally very positive and expectant. "
Here is our look-out for 2006:
"For 2006 emRG is planning the major role-out of its Research Framework, a larger Research Conference, the publication of the outcomes of the “European Spiritual Estimate” and a regular contribution to the planned paper magazine of the “Hope for Europe” network. Other projects are in planning, but time/ money resources are always short. Specific project oriented fundraising will consequently also need to be pursued."

--- DEUTSCH ---
Das emRG Core Team trifft sich dieser Tage in Berlin. Oben ist eine 2005 Zusammenfassung sowie ein Ausblick 2006 für unser Forschungsnetzwerk. Alles in allem sind wir sehr ermutigt und erwartungsvoll. Mitdenken, -wünschen und -beten für Weisheit und Gelingen in der weiteren Entwicklung wird sehr dankbar angenommen :o

emRG 4th CONSULTATION

European missions research is advancing strongly these days. The European Mission Research Group is about to "go public" after a good year of preparatory work. An open emRG Consultation will be held in Barcelona 3-5 April to...

• discuss the results of our just completed Europe wide study on the "Christianess of Europe".

• roll out the "emRG Matrix", the Research Framework which we propose for adoption to the whole European missions community to fill with data until end of 2006 in order to draw a more solid "big picture or missions in Europe" together (prototype here).

For this event we especially invite missions strategists - besides researchers of course - to discuss, decide and plan together for research in Europe. Feel free to forward this invitation to anyone who might be interested to join us in our joint journey towards "research that catalyzes church multiplication in Europe".

EUROPEAN SPIRITUAL ESTIMATE

How "Christian" after all is Europe??

emRG has published the results of the ESE, its public online survey, probing for the gut feeling of ordinary believers (short intro here, more on the "wisdom of crowds" approach here).

Friend and research genius Scott Friderich who has been brain and hand behind the ESE gives the following top-level sample results:

• Northwest Ukraine is estimated to be the most culturally “Christian” region of Europe.
• Odeska, Ukraine is estimated to be the region most open to the Gospel.
• Kosova is estimated to be the region with the least number of Gospel Oriented Christians and also the least open to the Gospel!
• 4.1% of overall Europe population are estimated to be Gospel Oriented Christians (independently from confessions and denominations).
•  It is estimated that Europe has 36378 Gospel Oriented churches with 117 new church plants total in 2005.

All ESE results are freely available at Scott's emRG page: http://emrg.friderich.net - and more will come. An exciting new round of discussion is thus opened - join in with us!

--- FRANCAIS ---

-> Un commentaire en Francais est disponible en vox dei.

--- DEUTSCH ---

Wie "christlich" ist Europa nun eigentlich??

Die Europäische Missionsforschungsgruppe emRG hat die Ergebnisse ihrer Onlineumfrage zur "Einschätzung Europäischer Geistlichkeit" (schlimm schlimm diese Übersetzungen...) veröffentlicht. Hier ein wenig zum Hintergrund und hier mehr über die eingesetzte Methode der "kollektiven Intelligenz").
Freund, Forschungsgenie und ESE Initiator  Scott Friderich listet einige Beispielergebnisse auf:

• Nordwest Ukraine ist schätzungsweiswe die kulturchristlichste europäische Region.
• Odeska, Ukraine ist schätzungsweiswe die Region mit der größten Offenheit fürs Evangelium.
• Der Kosovo ist schätzungsweiswe die Region mit der geringsten Anzahl "evangeliumsorientierter" Christen sowie die Region mit der geringsten Offenheit fürs Evangelium.
• Schätzungsweise 4.1% der europäischen Gesamtbevölkerung sind "evangeliumsorientierte" Christen (unabhängig von Konfession oder Denomination).
•  Schätzungsweise gibt es europaweit 36378 "evangeliumsorientierte" Kirchgemeinden und 117 Gemeindegründungen in 2005.

Auf Scott's emRG Seite finden sich alle ESE Ergebnisse zur freien Verfügung (und mehr ist in Arbeit): http://emrg.friderich.net. Damit darf eine ganz neue Diskussion über die geistliche Situation der europäischen Ländereien beginnen. Mach mit!

RESEARCHING BEAUTY

Back home. Enjoyed a fruitful time in our emRG research circle. Quite strong geek-language this time: research matrix, data interchange format, definitions, morph boxes, standard deviations (I remember that s² was 12 when t=0 and alpha=2.28...), survey design and database structures...

We were talking a three-dimensional overall research model, structured along geography, ethnicity and societal areas. Reminded me of the three dimensional cube which we find in Rev. 21 as a symbol of simplicity in complexity and complexity in simplicity, and altogether expressing the unsurpassable beauty of redeemed creation reflecting the unique Creator himself: nations, tribes and tongues (Rev.5:9) - multitudes, waters and thunders (Rev.19:6) - salvation, glory, and power (Rev.19:2/ Mt.6:13)... The One Bride of the One King - redeemed humanity fully alive (Rev.19:7-8). Sounds like a great destiny to me!! :)
And what else could research be about if not about the reflections of the beauty of the ONE?!

emRG IN BERLIN

After a great and intensely blessed business week (and I start loving the business world!!) I am preparing for our upcoming researchers meeting. The emRG workforce will meet in Berlin next week to discuss definitions, data interchange formats, open source product matrixes, and survey design in the context of "strategic research for church multiplication".  Sounds geeky? Well, it probably is...
By the way, here is emRG's latest baby: the start of a regular monthly newsletter on research for church multiplication in Europe. If you are still not suffering under information fatigue, go ahead here ;)

--- DEUTSCH ---
Nach einer intensiven und erfolgreichen Business Woche PTL, laufen meine Vorbereitungen für das emRG Meeting (deutscher Link) nächste Woche in Berlin. Unser jüngstes Projekt ist der Start eines monatlichen Newsletters zu Forschung für Gemeindemultiplikation. Persönlich kann ich ja keine newsletter mehr sehen, aber wen's interessiert, der darf sich gerne bei mir "subscriben".

emRG survey online (E/D)

emRG (link includes a short intro) has launched a new European Survey which gathers masses of subjective estimates on the presence and vitality of churches and on the receptivity of the local population. The results will help to better ascertain the status of missions in Europe and highlight its spiritual need. Results will also flow  into the next edition of "Operation World". Nearly everyone qualifies for taking part -> BE A PART OF IT HERE!

--- DEUTSCH ---

In einer aktuellen Umfrage sammelt das europäische Forschungsnetzwerk emRG flächendeckend subjektive Einschätzungen über Gemeindedichte, -aktivität und die Offenheit der Bevölkerung für den christlichen Glauben. Die Ergebnisse konkretisieren den Missionsauftrag und helfen, die geistliche Not Europas realistisch darzustellen. Deine Möglichkeit, die nächste Auflage von "Operation World" der missionarischen Realität vor Ort näher zu bringen. -> Zur Umfrage hier (und zu einer ergänzenden Erklärung hier).

what is "normal church"??

Cross posting from the tall Skinny (more details there):

Interesting research prognosticates (American) church attendance trends into 2025:

1 out of 3 fully committed Christian today tell you that their primary spiritual context is NOT the local church. Thus "post-evangelicalism" is a trend, but still on the fringes of "normal church". 

This balance will turn upside-down over the next two decades, says George Barna. Then the "fringe Christians" will be 2 out of 3 and thus no longer be "on the fringes" at all. This then would be the end to the predominance of the "local church" concept.

Don't worry, I am convinced, the real kingdom value that we love in our "churches" will not be lost, but rather regained in fullness by that time.

emRG-focus on church-planting

Happy with what we achieved as emRG core-team over the last days.

Besides late night talks with good Scotch whiskey and battling each other on Kahuna and Guillotine (cool card game which you win by chopping of aristocratic heads...), we made good progress on our overall system design.

We also conducted 4 focus-groups (= group interviews) among church planters in order to better understand which type of research would serve their practice needs best. One of the outstanding results is that there is a huge need to "better understand the target culture and find relevant ways of engaging the local community". Any research that provides this kind of information would often be gold to the church planter (more here).

emRG page

short emRG update: thanks to the untiring efforts of Paul from Barcelona, our research page is progressing! have a look here!

the domain is a temporary solution. we have pre-registered for the "emrg.eu" domain which should be active by end of year.

emRG and HFE

As emRG we partner with the pan-european umbrella network for society impact "Hope for Europe". Genius philosopher Jeff Fountain is the master networker behind this scene and offers his very remarkable insights on Europe's future here.

Graciously they provide us with a small web-presence. You can find us among their many networks, see who was at our last meeting in Prague or follow some updated links into our work (better follow my links here, as their site navigation still needs to improve).

EMRG in Prague

Our european missions research group - an open collaborative network of painters of the "big picture" - is going to meet its second time - next week in Prague. We are looking to the Lord of the harvest for impassioning, community building and further direction as to how we can tap closer into the desires of His heart and learn to see the world with His eyes - rejoicing with Him, weeping with Him.

Missions research cannot be something else than this.

Also, as researchers from 8 countries we will train each other in effective visualisation techniques. You might be interested to explore one of our resources: the NASA open-source project World-Wind - a free global satellite imagery. Try it (if you have some GB of free disc space) - it's awesome!

Prayers for our time together (17th/21st) are most welcome :)

christians - the world's resource

christians are supposed to be the world's strongest resource - in terms of spreading and fostering a thoroughly positive approach to life, human-kind and nature. if you know something about history, you know that it witnesses strongly to the positive outcomes of constructive christian activity (besides its parallel witness to the destructivity and perversion of corrupted "christian" institutions).

thinking along these lines, have you ever wondered where evangelical christianity is strongest in europe ("evangelical" used in its broad sense of an attitude of heart which may be found in all sorts of christian confessions & church denominations)?

ask our american friends, they know everything about us ;)
no serious, this is sort of the best graphical presentation that you can get on this question up to now. (green=%high,red=%low)

the predominent orange meaning < 2% of population. not much, huh?

and please, for "evangelicals" read:
the "jesus loving - scripture loving - people loving - earth loving kind of person" that you probably seldom met, but always wanted to be yourself :)

evangelicals are not all like that?
true, but many of them at least earnestly desire to be like that. and that is already a beginning, isn't it??

yet another "EMeRGe" thing

just wanted to add a short explanation to the EMRG acronym used in my yesterday's blog.

Christians seem to like abbreviations of all sorts, especially the more mission minded, and especially especially those from the anglophone areas... so we thought it a great idea to even add to that semi-babylonic confusion and throw in our 2 pens worth with the new name of our fresh researchers guild:

EMRG (pronounce "EMeRGe") = "European Missions Research Group - strategic research for church multiplication". we are a collaborative learning network among peers based on the values of friendship, passion, and organic emergence.

and - NO: it has nothing to do with the "emerging church" in the first place (even though we are an emerging network striving to work towards novel parameters of missions in a post-modern time).

Lausanne Research Conf.

wow - that was a day of a huge amount of fruitful interaction. (for "huge" read: quite stressful as well...)

explored potential for collaboration or cooperation with Jason M from Operation World, Darrell J from the Council of European Churches, Jim H from the International Mission Board, Todd J from World Christian Encyclopedia etc etc. names and people that are quite well positioned in the global research and mapping field regarding the progress of the good news of our great relational KING. i will have a good deal to follow up on after this congress here, but am glad about development of things. looks like we are welcomed and supported by that community of global co-workers for the KING.

going from talk to talk i really felt strongly like withdrawing for a time, which i did, wandering/ climbing the sort of stony beaches here and refreshed my soul's intimacy with the divine. childlike joy and passionate excitement in this ONE RELATIONSHIP is absolutely superior i tell you than chatting with any of the "big names" - there is only ONE big name anyway :)

EMRG in Cyprus

if you are interested in missions research (dealing with church statistics and the "big picture of missions in Europe") AND don't mind downloading a good mb of data, you might want to check out the pdf-cramped version of the presentation that i held yesterday here in Cyprus before i went to the beach burning my feet in the grey-black sand and got plagued by sand-mitches while trying to fall asleep at the beach this night.

you might also be interested in visiting the research page of my friend Paul who is here with me

if missions research is NOT one of your specific interest areas, you will probably be bored to tears and i recommend you check your other feeds or surf one of my favorite ones:

http://marcsmessages.typepad.com/

http://www.tallskinnykiwi.com/

http://www.heidiplympton.blogspot.com/

http://threehouses.typepad.com/