About The Third Way

Christ came to earth to teach His followers that there is a Third Way of dealing with conflict.

As Christians we often believe that there are only two ways to address injustice:  Firstly, by standing up for the truth – which sometimes result in unkindness, aggression and being a poor witness. The second option is that we respond passively – which results in apathy, inaction and also being a poor witness.

Christ came to earth to teach His followers a third way. He proclaimed a principle of an opposite spirit.  We are not called to be passive nor are we called to be aggressive – we are called to retaliate, but with a difference. If someone hurts us (consider the supreme example set by Christ on the cross), we take revenge by offering forgiveness. If someone threatens our safety and security, we take revenge by praying for them. If someone slanders, ridicules and curses us, we don’t take this lying down.  We take revenge by blessing them.  Yes, it’s okay to take revenge, but our weapons now reflect a crucified Christ.  The third way demands a Christ-conscious and transformed thinking.

 

About The Host

As a young sport student at university, Mike came to know the Lord as his personal saviour in 1976. Immediately after his conversion he was introduced to missions as he traveled to the Montreal Olympic games on an outreach with Youth with a Missions (YWAM).  This immediate exposure to missions left Mike with no option but to “go and make disciples” and he immediately attended a discipleship school in Hawaii for further training.

In 1979 Mike and Helen got married and two years later they left South Africa, together with their 4 month old daughter Elisha, to join the Anastasis, the Mission Ship of YWAM, in Greece.

The impact of experiencing a broken world without Jesus changed their lives irreversibly and their travels around the globe confirmed their calling time and time again.  Upon their return to South Africa, after the birth of their second daughter Helga, in 1985, Mike and Helen were introduced to the unique ministry of Open Doors, the organisation that specialises in ministering to Christians in closed countries.  They knew this was where the Lord has placed them and joined Open Doors in 1987

For the next 23 years Mike and Helen had the incredible joy of serving the Lord by serving His Church in closed and restricted countries.  They were able to minister into countries behind the Iron curtain and the former Eastern Europe and traveled extensively into Africa, the Arab World, Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Mike served as national director for Open Doors South Africa until 2008 before he was appointed Vice-President of Open Doors International and served from the United Kingdom base as head of 21 development bases world-wide.

Mike’s experiences brought him into a deeper understanding of how God is sovereignly shaping the world according to His purposes and how global events are drawing people in to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Mike established INcontext International in 2010 with a goal of assisting the Church in : UNDERSTANDING global events within a Kingdom context and ALTERNATING strategies within a contemporary context.

By the grace of God the ministry has expanded to more than 20 countries during the past ten years, serving the Church in strategic nations across the globe and assisting the Church in freedom to identify the season of harvest.

Mike is also the author of five books: