• 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!

Change case

Posted on January 19, 2017 by wtdavid

Many of us have (or are facing) a situation such as the following:

“A small group has been built as a result of one’s evangelistic and discipleship efforts.  Most of the people attending the small group have been discipled by you.  Your fellow co-wochangerkers have been encouraging you for a while to think about next steps in the church planting continuum.  Now you are feeling that it is time to ‘turn over’ this group to the local believers. 

However, each time you position someone to move into the leadership of the group, you are met with this response: “I just can’t do this.”  It’s either said overtly or it’s implied by the way in which each person avoids the conversation.”

“Foundations are forever.”

Some of the possible ‘faulty foundations’ we may have planted in this situation might be, one, that the ministry centres on us as workers, and two, that to lead in any way one needs to have extensive training and education.  Now, we may not be stating these foundations outright, but our actions are certainly communicating these ideas.

So what can do to change these ‘faulty foundations’?

First, we can admit where we have gone wrong in laying the current foundations.  It’s never an easy step to say that we may have not taken the best steps in launching a group or a church.  Yet, such honesty can ‘level the field’ with local believers so that they (and we) will see that this small group, this work, is God’s doing and that we all have a part to play in its life.

Second, we can pray (and ask others to pray with us) for God to search our hearts and show us a way out of these faulty foundations; and how to build new foundations in the Gospel.  Each of us can be blinded to things that may inhibit local believers from getting involved in the work.  The Lord is gracious to show us our ‘hurtful ways’ and through the Gospel help us to build bridges back to our fellow believers, joining with them in the work.

Finally, we can start by asking others for help from the start.  People do need to be trained in the ministry. However, most of us hesitate from releasing local believers into the ministry because we always think they need even more preparation.  Some of their preparation though will probably come about through real live ministry experience.

Many of us have (or are facing) a situation such as the one above.  However, God works in seemingly impossible situations, both in our hearts and in the hearts of those to whom we are ministering.

Filed under: Change & transition, Church, Church planting | 2 Comments »

Faulty foundations

Posted on January 17, 2017 by wtdavid

“Foundations are forever”.  However, can ‘foundations’ ever be changed?  If those ‘foundations’ are found in our own life and soul, can they be altered?  That is the discussion we’re having around this ‘virtual’ lunch table today.foundations-1

Obviously, our first answer would have to be that ‘all things are possible with God’ and that foundations can be changed by His powerful work in our lives.

Yet, the road to that change may be more difficult than we might imagine because along the way we will confront our weakness, our idols and our own naiveté.

Changing faulty foundations puts us face to face with our own weakness: that is, in our own strength, we are incapable of bringing about the long lasting change needed. Simply put, we need God.

Changing faulty foundations causes us to confront our own idols: the idol of reputation where we strive to have others think well of us; or the idol of self-sufficiency where we refuse to let others serve and help us because we don’t want to appear needy.

Changing the faulty foundations makes us aware of our own naiveté: that is, how little we really understand the depth of our sin and selfishness.  So many of the faulty foundations in our own lives and ministries are the fruit of our shaky grasp of the doctrine of original sin.

However, faulty foundations are also an opportunity to face head on those sinful habits and actions that need to be ‘put off’ in order, by grace, to ‘put on’ those qualities, those elements of character, those new foundations which will cause His name to be honoured in our lives and ministries.

An example of this kind of change would be helpful.  

Filed under: Change & transition, Church planting, Gospel | Leave a comment »

Laying it down

Posted on January 9, 2015 by wtdavid

Many of you may have heard about the tragic events which occurred this past Wednesday here in Paris.  As I listened to an online talk show while driving to the office, the interviewer asked two religious leaders why we should continue to talk about the need to address the evil intentions of peoples’ hearts when that message, up to this point, has brought about little or no change.  The response was truly insightful: ‘Saying something once does not mean that the problem has been dealt with and will go away.  We need to repeat, repeat and continue to repeat the message for it to take root and bring about change.’

change in the skyWe all know the ‘right’ answer or response to the questions of ongoing Christian growth and maturity.  However, those truths are not sufficiently repeated so as to ‘take root’ in our hearts and cause real and visible change to occur.

“You have given us your most cherished treasure, yet we prize many other things more highly than Christ.  Forgive us for trusting in our own strength more than in his power to save us completely.  We live each day with hearts full of our own desires, minds full of our own agendas and plans for our own self-promotion.  Forgive us, Lord.” (Prone to Wander)

We know that we prize many other things more highly than Christ: the approval of others, our ministry strategy and vision, being ‘right’, and our comfort or lifestyle, for example.  We know that we prize these things and tell ourselves we need to prize Christ more, yet our actions (and our words) demonstrate that we continue to value these above Christ.

We need to ‘lay all these things down’ and that comes through a daily effort of crying out to God for His work to turn our eyes back to Him.  It comes as well through turning to others to help us take this Gospel ‘downtown’ to our hearts.

“Holy Spirit, fill us with everlasting wonder that the gospel is true.  You kept your promise to send a Savior; help us to stop trying to rescue others and ourselves.  When we are tempted as [Adam and] Eve did, remind us of Christ, who kept all your laws for us, and fix our eyes on him.” (Prone to Wander)

Slowly we will see changes occur in the way we as a WT community talk with one another and listen well to one another.  We will actually lay down our ‘right-ness’ in how we see and do things and begin to work together in community to bring the Gospel to ourselves and to the unreached.

Filed under: Change & transition, Community, Repentance & faith | Leave a comment »

Learning to listen well in the midst of all the noise

Posted on August 12, 2014 by wtdavid

It’s becoming tougher and tougher to listen well to those around us.  Technology has increased our capacity to ‘communicate’ with one another, but not necessarily to listen well to each other.  The other day, I had my landline, cell phone and Skype all ringing at the same time.  How could I be available to listen well to each caller?  Noise pollution

We are all familiar with the text: “Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”  I think a more truthful paraphrase in our context today would be: “Let every person be quick to speak, slow to hear, and careful about one’s anger.”  Our strong suit is to be able to share our ideas, not necessarily to hear, understand and consider the ideas of others.

World Team is entering a new phase in our ministries around the globe.  We sense that that God is calling us an agency to deep change.  However, if we are only committed to what I or you believe the future should look like, we will miss the dynamic that creates different and new attitudes and actions. Through listening well to others, ideas will be able to intersect and build off one another.

Yet the ‘noise’ around us can keep us from listening to others in such a deliberate way. Often, that ‘noise’ is nothing more than our own pride.

A simple step to push us towards listening well to one another would be to say: “Let me share what I think I just heard you say”, and try to summarize what you think the person just said.  That small reflex would begin to build the capacity to work together in seeking to further multiply disciples and communities of believers.

Filed under: Change & transition, Listening | Leave a comment »

Ten reasons why World Team will change

Posted on October 16, 2013 by wtdavid

Reason number 6: WT workers recognize that our calling remains the same, but the means or mode for communicating the message of Christ is in constant flux.top-ten-reasons-married

Reason number 7: The WT community knows that the global base of missions has shifted.

Reason number 8: Two conceptions of ministry come together to create a movement that has both structure and Spirit led freedom.

Reason number 9: WT workers relish wrestling with change

Reason number 10: God is moving history towards His desired objective

In my mind, reason number 10 should be the most compelling as it’s the ‘last’ one.  However, reason number 10 should send us back to reason number 1; back to the heart of who we are and what we do as a result.

God is at the centre and the one who moves and directs history according to His plan.  Oftentimes, His desired objective may upset or change our comfortable pattern.  Joe Conley called it ‘divine disruptions’:

“God’s man or woman must be sensitive to change, ready to see in disruption divine leading to new avenues of service and fresh modes of operation. For Elijah, the supply of brook and raven had been God’s provision.  It was familiar.  It was comfortable.  But the brook dried up.  The comfortable pattern was disrupted, the familiar shattered.”

We do not like such changes in what is comfortable for us.  Our normal response to such a shift in plans or a change of course is complaining.  This is an indication that we still want to be the masters of our lives.

Divine disruptions are a reminder that there is one God and that He is active in this world to bring about what He desires.  World Team will change not because we are change agents, but because our God is moving in this world, disrupting our ways and patterns in order to open up new avenues, fresh modes of ministry; all for the purpose of seeing that the Gospel is preached to all peoples.

 

Filed under: Change & transition, Gospel | Leave a comment »

Ten reasons why World Team will change

Posted on September 20, 2013 by wtdavid

Reason number 6: WT workers recognize that our calling remains the same, but the means or mode for communicating thetop-ten-reasons-married message of Christ is in constant flux.

Reason number 7: The WT community knows that the global base of missions has shifted.

Reason number 8: Two conceptions of ministry come together to create a movement that has both structure and Spirit led freedom.

Reason number 9: WT workers relish wrestling with change

I have often heard that one of the knocks against WT is the fact that we change too often.  Granted, there is a realistic drawback to constantly changing.  However, the fact that one is willing to change, that one is willing to regularly question the course of action undertaken, is also an indication that one’s heart is attuned to needed Spirit-led adjustment.  I think WT can be characterized by this desire.

WT workers relish wrestling with change.  Two years ago, I asked a number of working groups to consider innovative responses to the global trends missions are facing today.  I was amazed by the depth of creative ideas that were shared with us as a leadership team, and how quickly these groups responded back to us.

WT workers relish wrestling with change.  There is a dark side to our wrestling though.  We may be so enamored with wrestling that we never get around to implementation.  Or we may be so taken with the way certain ministries or work are structured and carried out that we shy away from putting them into question.  J.D. Payne put it this way: “Christians are the ultimate conservatives when it comes to making necessary institutional adjustments for missions.  And in many cases, until our pet preferences become a burden to us, or are cataclysmically removed from our control, we are likely to hold on to them, grieving the Spirit yet believing we are walking the straight-and-narrow path for gospel advancement.”

The truly bright side is that we as workers (plural) relish working together with change.  We need one another to work through, to question, to suggest adjustments and change. We need one another to hold each other’s feet to the fire to ensure we carry through with those changes.  We need one another to do the work of ministry.

I see this spirit alive in many of us today and for that reason, WT will change in the days and months ahead.

Filed under: Change & transition | Leave a comment »

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