By Dave Richards

[photopress:dave_web_color.jpg,thumb,alignright]Dave is cofounder and a board member of Off The Map. Dave is a Christian and high-tech business leader. He’s been a worship leader, small group leader, led multiple youth groups and assisted in planting a church in the 90s. On the business side, Dave has led many high-performance software teams and marketing efforts. Dave and his wife Sharon are the proud parents of three children and live in Seattle.

Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous (140 million people) nations, is the international poster child for poverty and natural disasters. In fact many leaders have given up hope that Bangladesh will ever amount to anything more than a black hole for foreign aid. Read the rest of this entry »

by Marti Clark

Before Luther officially started ?The Reformation? many other reformers preceded him. Luther got the press but they paved the way. Perhaps the same comparisons could be made with the missional movement. The missional movement is primarily about refocusing the church’s attention back on the people Jesus misses most. While some see this as a new idea it is actually an old idea gone fallow. Groups like Alpha have been exploring how to make this connection for a number of years with much success. Marti Clark is the Alpha Regional Advisor for the Southern California area and an Off the Map colleague. We asked her to tell us about her work with Alpha.

These are the words of Melissa (not her real name), a 28 year old “never-churched” psychic, previously involved in Reiki, Tarot, and other “New Age” activities, who only a few weeks before had described Christianity as a “dead religion”, and her goddess as “a vibrant, life-giving force.” Read the rest of this entry »

Twenty people -$50 bills- and an experiment

By Kelly Bean

[photopress:kelly_bean2.jpg,thumb,alignleft]This spring, Off the Map founder Jim Henderson’s book of practical inspiration for evangelism “AKA Lost” was released for sale. Within weeks of this happy event our family sold our spacious home in the country and prepared to move to town, to scale down and simplify.

Selling a large house and buying a small house meant we had money in the bank. Since we do not currently attend an “organized” church, tithing takes on new forms. We gather regularly in our home as a small community of 20 adults and 10 children. I serve as cultivator/leader for this group named “Third Saturday.” Read the rest of this entry »