• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

A word for the year

Posted on January 18, 2018 by wtdavid

My word for this year would be: “Fear not”. fear not

Now, I’m not one to try and come up with a catchy phrase for each year, but this one has been laid on my heart since re-visiting the story of the shepherds and the announcement of the angel to them in Luke 2.

It’s amazing how many times this statement, “fear not“, appears in the Scriptures.  Here, in this text, it has the sense of ‘don’t be afraid, trust Me’.  The appearance of an angel of the Lord was often associated with judgment, but here it is an announcement of redemption, of joy, of life.  You could translate it: ‘don’t be afraid, come and see what the Lord has done.’

I question whether I have what it takes to run 42 km again (see: “Gifting a Challenge”).  I’m ‘fearing‘ about running that distance again.  However, I’m going to take on the challenge because I want to make a memory with our kids.

You may be questioning why you should give any more effort to the task.  I’m inviting you to make a memory with me; a memory of two people groups significantly impacted, indigenous leaders raised up and working with us and teaching one another.

It’s going to be a lot of work, but when we cross that line together, we will say that it was all worth the effort.  “Fear not!  Trust God!”

Save the date.  Tuesday, November 27th (#givethanksTuesday).  On that day, come and see not just what the Lord has done, but what the Lord will do through us and in us.

Filed under: Challenge, Trust | Leave a comment »

Gifting a challenge

Posted on January 17, 2018 by wtdavid

Last Friday night for the first session of the Alpha Course sponsored by our local church, we were introducing ourselves around the table.  L–, a guest and friend of Jean-Claude, looked at me several times saying, “I feel like I’ve seen this man before.”  “Are you local?” he asked.  Jean Claude jokingly said that he might have seen me running around Cergy.  “David runs several times a week.  He runs marathons.”

Yes, I do run.  Or at least I try to run three times a week.  However, I haven’t run a marathon in over 10 years.  I didn’t correct Jean Claude’s statement, I let it ride (read, I let it ‘run’).  The challenge is gone. I’ve been running for my own stress relief and health, which is a very good objective according to my doctor.  The challenge, the vision of something greater is not part of what gets me up in the morning anymore to go out running. It’s become a routine.

In our family, we do what is called ‘Secret Santas’.  Each member of the family is given the name of another family member through an online program.  My oldest daughter drew my name this year and her gift to me was: the entry fee for the Florence marathon on November 25th of this year.  Another marathon?! The challenge is certainly not the same as it was a number of years ago – to run three marathons before I turned 50 years old.  However, it’s a challenge nonetheless; a challenge to run a marathon with two of my children.

The people we are most concerned about; the people for whom we work are the lost.  Our desire, our central ministry focus is to see all our work contribute to raising up disciples and communities of believers and praying for exponential growth (read, multiplication) of those disciples and communities across a people group.  Whether you are ‘on the ground’ in ministry or processing support gifts or mobilising new workers or keeping our finances healthy or fixing our IT issues, all of it has the same ultimate objective in mind.

Today, I am ‘gifting’ you a challenge. 

run with me 3Run with me.  Run together with me.  Not just to do your work better, not just to see a number come to Christ through our work and efforts, but to concretely see, observe and identify the impact of our efforts among two people groups.  Our tendency will be to want to ‘go it alone’ – just as I told my kids that I would run on my own and they could run ahead of me.  However, the joint chant should become: “I, we want to run with you.”

How will we know?  How will we know what that concrete impact upon two people groups will look like?  We will discover it together as we talk, pray, dialogue, plan and pray again together. All of us.

I’m sending you a ‘save the date’ note by this post.

Save Tuesday, November 27th as the date when we will stand back to see what God has done as we ‘run together’ this year (#givethanksTuesday).

Filed under: Challenge, Unreached people groups | Leave a comment »

Who is your one?

Posted on January 20, 2017 by wtdavid

Last week, I attended church with my older brother. I was taken by a statement and a slogan that the pastor shared with this group of believers.

He read a familiar text from Ephesians 1:1-14, emphasizing these verses: “Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

Then he made this statement: “I want to talk with you about ‘your story’.  However, ‘your story’ does not start with who you think you are.  Your story begins with who God says you are.”  God set His love on me, on you.  He pursued us ‘one by one’ and chose to make us part of His family.  “Mission,” he said, “starts with knowing who we are.”

That resonated with me.  It was the Gospel applied to or being worked out in mission.  Our story is wone-bisrapped up in Him and our mission flows out of that identity.

Then he shared this slogan via a question: “Who is your one?”  Who is the person God has put on your heart?  Are you close to anyone who is far from God?  Are you in touch with anyone who is wondering how they fit into God’s mission in the world?

“Who is your one?”

As a worker with World Team, your ‘story’ begins with what God says about you, “who is your one?”

It’s another way of stating the Central Ministry Focus of our WT Ministry Framework.

“Who is your one?”

Filed under: Challenge, Gospel, Mission | Leave a comment »

The art of sacrifice in a region (Europe)

Posted on December 8, 2014 by wtdavid

The Mission¹⁴: Vision Forward Europe conference was the final Area conference in 2014.  The conference focused on personal and leader development with presentations by Albert, Steve and Mark, and  was furthered through small group interaction. One highlight was the number of new workers partnering with WT Europe since the last Area conference.  About 15-20 workers have joined WT Europe within the last three years and a number of those workers come from partnerships with other like minded agencies.2014 Europe Conference Picture 2

As I wrote in the previous post, “I shared a number of challenges with each region or Area.  The purpose was to affirm and celebrate what God has done through us over the past few years as well as to challenge Area members to “excel still more” in their work and ministry for Jesus.”

During the WT Europe conference, I shared the following challenges.

First challenge: give away the ministry. Though our drive may be to hold on to the ministry, we must allow, empower, and give others the responsibility to carry out spiritual ministry.  This calls for a strong grasp of the Gospel which reminds us that our ultimate value is not to be found in our work, but in Him.  Multiplication then is a natural outgrowth of a heart that is centred in the Gospel.

Second challenge: choose afresh apostolic rather than pastoral.  A cross cultural worker is by nature someone who is concerned with the spiritual state of others; he/she has a pastoral stance towards others in the sense of wanting those apart from Christ to come into a personal relationship with Him.  However, our calling is to be starters and equippers; our calling is an apostolic one.  We can easily fall into a pastoral stance and inhibit the development of nationals to build and shape the ministry. From the start of any new work, our approach needs to be apostolic.

Third challenge: live in and out of community.  Our values can make great sound bites.  However, for our values to become the compass by which our work and ministry is directed, we must work out those values in the context of community.  The TC4u challenge was a reminder to the WT community of our need as workers to find and build a community where we can speak into others lives as well as allow others to speak into our lives.

Fourth challenge: learn to measure progress.  Numbers are important, but stories tell so much more.  The challenge is to do both well.  Metrics is not a pleasant word for many, but we are called to give an account of what we have done with the resources God has placed at our disposal.  However, accountability is not just about counting disciples or churches, but also about demonstrating the progress and growth that has occurred.   Both are needed and that is the challenge that faces all of us.

I share these challenges given to the WT Europe workers with all of us both as a reminder of the challenges given, but also as a motivation to pray for one another as we seek to learn the further change and growth to which God is calling us.

Filed under: Challenge, Development, Vision Forward 2014 | Leave a comment »

The art of sacrifice in a region

Posted on November 12, 2014 by wtdavid

At the Mission¹⁴: Vision Forward Area conferences this past year, I shared a number of challenges with each region or Area.  The purpose was to affirm and celebrate what God has done through us over the past few years as well as to challenge Area members to “excel still more” in their work and ministry for Jesus.

We can each settle in to a ‘comfortable’ way of doing ministry and lose that edge of daily learning what it means to “die to our fleshly love of impressing people in this way for glory for ourselves.”  I will often fend off challenges that may be given to me by ‘defending’ the good stuff that I’m already doing, and concluding by saying something like, “besides you don’t really understand what I am dealing with here in my ministry.”

We all need others to help us gain better perspective and grow in our character, gifts and abilities.  Naaman (2 Kings 5) was fortunate enough to have a number of servants who were willing to “bring him up short” in a crisis situation.  Otherwise, he probably would have walked away from the redemption and healing he sought.

Over the next few posts, I would like to share what I shared with each Area: both as a reminder of the challenge, but also as a motivation to pray for one another as we seek to learn the further change and growth to which God is calling us.

Filed under: Challenge, Gospel, Vision Forward 2014 | Leave a comment »

It’s starting to happen

Posted on July 25, 2013 by wtdavid

In an earlier post this month, I asked: how has God been at work to answer our prayer for this 1+1 challenge?

That each worker in the World Team community would intentionally

disciple one person into a relationship with Christ and that each worker

would intentionally disciple one person into cross cultural ministry

This is a note I received this morning: “Kudos to Bryan (WT Philippines) for recruiting one (a couple) to World Team!  Daniel and Janice are here at the US Assessment Centre (RACE) right now because Bryan, while on home assignment, encouraged them to pursue full-time missionary service.  They felt honored that a respected missionary from their home church would think that they could accomplish such a task, and they took the necessary steps to move forward. Obviously God had been working on their hearts for years.  Kudos to Bryan for issuing a challenge to them!”

I was also told today that of the current participants at the US Assessment Centre, three previously served as WT interns and one currently works with us. Another comes from a church that supports two WT families. At least one is a Finisher’s contact who chose WT over other agencies because of the quality follow-uptraction

It’s starting to happen.  The challenge is gaining some traction. God is bringing fruit to the efforts of many.  I’m praying the challenge will gain more traction in the days and months ahead.

 

.

 

 

Filed under: 1plus1, Challenge, Mobilization | Leave a comment »

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