• 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!

Gateway or bottleneck

Posted on May 17, 2013 by wtdavid

I was recently reading through a number of articles that I had placed in a file when I ran across this quote in one of those articles:

“Young leaders want and need a place at the table. I know of one church where the leader (who is himself in his thirties) meets weekly with the church’s key emerging leaders. They read books on church leadership to discuss, they engage in spiritual and theological reflection. But they don’t stop there. He regularly offers them opportunities and assignments to do critical ministry projects and innovations. In some cases these have led to whole new ministry organizations being started, with young leaders at the helm. It happened because his leadership became a gateway and not a bottleneck.”Bottleneck

Several things struck me.  First, this leader had a “developmental mindset”. In other words, when new workers came into his ministry, he viewed them from the perspective of how they could be developed and trained to grow in ministry.  He saw their need for ongoing learning and training from the day they walked in the door (see my post from 13.05.2013).  Next, he gave away or delegated ministry opportunity.  He gave people a chance to test out their gifts and abilities in a context where he could give feedback and counsel.  He did not micromanage what they did.  He followed what they did: praying, giving feedback and cheering them on.  Finally, this leader was a young guy (in his thirties) who was building and releasing a growing number of workers and leaders.

World Team workers have an average of eighteen years of experience in cross cultural ministry.  We have an “experience capital” that is significant.

Imagine what could happen, by God’s grace, if that “experience capital” were used to create “gateways” for younger workers and leaders.

Filed under: Challenge, Delegation, Development | Leave a comment »

What am I going to do?

Posted on January 9, 2013 by wtdavid

1plus1 is a challenge to each of us in the WT community to intentionally disciple one person into a relationship with Christ and to intentionally disciple one person into cross cultural ministry.  The question that immediately comes to mind is: so what am I going to do?

That is a question that each of us must answer for ourselves individually.  However, Mark in his reply to my post, reached out to all of us and asked for some ‘shared responses’.  He wrote: “I am wondering if there are others of you out there who read David’s challenge, but were thinking the same thing I am?  Let’s hear from you. And David, any advice for us?”

My response or my answer to the challenge comes with three questions:Progress in Action - Road Barricade Improvement and Change for F

One, why not intentionally plan time in my schedule to be with someone seeking Christ or someone interested in serving cross culturally?  My day can easily fill up with lots of good activities and responsibilities.  If being with others is a priority, then I need to plan that into my day or at least be open to divine interruptions that lead me to people who are seeking Christ or seeking to serve Christ somewhere in the world.

Two, why not pray asking God to lead me to the right places to fish?  I am not a fisherman by hobby, but I do know that if I’m looking for something, I need to put myself in a place where there is a likelihood I will find what I am looking for.  However, I don’t know the people in whom God is working and I need His help to discern where I should put my time and energies.

Three, why not look for ways to open up spiritual conversations?  Contextualizing the Gospel means in part that we look for ways that will allow people to engage with the Gospel themselves and discover Christ in that interaction.  Sometimes, I, along with you, get lost in a conversation and can’t see a way to turn it to Christ.  Being intentional will mean that we look for ways to bring the person into dialogue with Christ about their personal relationship with Him or their desire to serve Him. Caroline gave a great example the other night when she talked about all the discussion that was going on about the ‘end of the world’.  Her simple statement/question serves as an example of opening spiritual conversation: “It’s funny how people can get so caught up in this frenzy of thinking that the world is going to end.  And it didn’t.  But it sure makes one think about what is after all this.  Have you ever thought about that?”

There is no one path, but there is one challenge, and to meet that challenge we totally need God.

Filed under: 1plus1, Challenge, Sharing the Gospel story | 4 Comments »

1plus1

Posted on January 7, 2013 by wtdavid

Christmas is both a time to consider the wonder of Christ’s birth as well as an opportunity to again marvel at His ongoing presence and work among us.  Chris Tomlin’s song: “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)” underscores this thought in such a clear way.  How unbelievable it is that our God chose to come to dwell among us: “Emmanuel, Emmanuel, God Incarnate here to dwell”.

That intentionality serves as our anchor and our model.  Last January, we began the year by talking about such intentionality.  I wrote: “Missional living is a constant struggle of intentionality.  Our lives and ministries continually call for deliberate and purposeful action.  We do not wait for people to move towards us, rather we must move towards them in an intentional way, just as God did916492-16x9-512x288 and does for us.”

As we start this year, we are keenly aware of two facts that weigh heavy on our hearts.  One is the need that many right around us have for a personal relationship with Christ.  We are surprised by the growing number of irreligious or people who believe there is no God.  In a recent Church Life survey done in Australia, the number of people stating that they believed there is ‘no God’ had nearly doubled in the past twenty years.  Another is the constant need for more workers.  Currently, there are almost fifty appointees from our various Support Centers who are waiting to join teams around the world and who are not able to be ‘sent’ because of a lack of funding, training or ministry allocation.

In light of God’s intentionality towards us, in light of His desire that we be intentional in our life, development and ministry, and in light of these facts which tug at our hearts, here’s my challenge to each of us as we begin this year of 2013:

 

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.

 

If only a tenth of our workers met this challenge, we would welcome over thirty five new brothers and sisters into the community of believers.  If only a tenth of our workers met this challenge, we would have more than thirty five new workers ready to be mobilized to new ministries and people groups.  However, I want to trust God for much more than that!

Many years ago, Paul (WT UK) called to see if I wanted to run the London marathon with him.  I thought he was kidding.  I had never run a marathon in my life.  He simply laid the challenge out, stating that he had two bib numbers for the race.  His question was straightforward: “Are you in or not?”

If “you’re in” for the challenge I have laid in front of us, then share your ‘yes’ with another co-laborer in the Gospel so that you might pray for one another, trusting this intentional God to use even us to lead others to Him and to challenge others into service.

 

 

Filed under: Challenge, Discipleship, Sharing the Gospel story | 15 Comments »

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