• 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!

I joined a movement

Posted on February 1, 2021 by wtdavid

I often say that I am part of a mission. And that is completely true.

I also say that I belong to a grouping of churches which ‘sent out’ my family and I to serve Christ in another place, in another culture.  And that is true as well.

Recently though I am beginning to say that I am part of a movement.

Saying that is more than just an exercise in semantics. There is depth and commitment behind the truth that I belong to a movement.

A movement in simplest terms is a grouping of individuals or organisations who work together to advance their shared idea, activity, or ministry objective. Being part of a movement means we work collaboratively and collectively, and leverage all our resources together for the growth and development of the movement.

There is fluidity and flexibility to a movement in its outworking in different contexts.  There is loads of room for creativity and innovation.

Yet, something ties the movement members together.  There is alignment in mission and direction.  There is a willingness to lead, and there is a willingness to follow.

What ties the movement members together though is the desired outcome.  For us as WT movement members, it’s seeing multiplying groups of disciples and communities of believers among the lost. 

But the hardest step in staying in step with the movement is learning yield; to humbly give up what we may want or think is the (our) right way to do things, to serve the larger desire and outcome of the movement.

Filed under: Church, Discipleship, Movement, Multiplication, Unreached people groups | 4 Comments »

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 »

Forgetting the essentials

Posted on May 24, 2016 by wtdavid

Each day when I wake up, I mentally go through the list of ‘things’ I need to do. Some of those activities may be important; some not so important.  In the rush of life though, the tyranny of the urgent can drastically change the order of that list of ‘things’ to do.  You can actually end up doing plenty of things that are urgent, but not necessarily the most important or essentialessential.

So what’s really ‘essential’? What’s really essential in our line of work or ministry?  For one, the Gospel. The Gospel speaks to us of the honor that Christ places upon us by calling us His brothers and sisters; that is a gift we could never have imagined receiving.  The Gospel brings freedom through casting all our sins, our worries and our cares upon Him. The Gospel brings hope that God will still use us, ‘wrecks that we are’, in His mission in the world.

What is also essential is sharing that great news with others. The Gospel truth cannot stay locked up in our own hearts. It must go somewhere.  An essential element of our calling as a believer is to share that Good News with others; to lead others to Christ, so that they might experience a personal relationship with Him.

Thinking through all this at the beginning of this week, I stumbled on this quote from Roland Allen in his seminal work: Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?: “St. Paul did not go about as a missionary preacher merely to convert individuals: he went to establish Churches from which the light might radiate throughout the whole country around.”  I realized that I might be ‘forgetting’ another element of those essentials I need to remember each day.  What is also essential in our line of work is to demonstrate and declare the necessity and need for community in order that every one of us might grow as a believer and might offer together our praise to our God.

I could summarize these thoughts in this way: Experience the Gospel, live the Gospel, share the Gospel, and call one another to live the Gospel in community!

Filed under: Church, Church planting, Discipleship, Gospel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

What’s our responsibility?

Posted on April 27, 2012 by wtdavid

Sometimes when I’m reading along in a book, a quote just jumps off the page and really forces me to reflect at a deeper level.

That was the case with this quote I read the other day:

“The responsibility of the church in the new age is the same as its responsibility in every age.  It is to testify that this world is lost in sin; that that the span of human life – no, all the length of human history – is an infinitesimal island in the awful depths of eternity; that there is a mysterious, holy, living God, creator of all, Upholder of all, infinitely beyond all; that he has revealed himself to us  through Jesus Christ the Lord; that there is no other salvation, for individuals or for nations, save this, but that this salvation is full and free, and that whoever possesses it has for himself and for all others to whom he may be the instrument of bringing it a treasure compared with which all the kingdoms of the earth – no, all the wonders of the starry heavens – are as the dust of the street.  An unpopular message it is – an impractical message, we are told.  But it is the message of the Christian church.  Neglect it, and you will have destruction; heed it, and you will have life.”

I had to ask myself again if my life and ministry are aligned with that singular purpose and responsibility. Then I asked myself if our lives and ministries together as a community reflect a singular commitment to this calling.  It certainly makes you sit back and reflect.

 

Next post: Spheres of influence?

Filed under: Church, Mission, Reflection | Leave a comment »

Reflecting on “the list”

Posted on January 23, 2012 by wtdavid

The question is a difficult one to answer, and one that we as a community have pondered over for some time: “What is church?”  Or to put it another way, “What do we mean by church?”

If you go to a theological handbook, you would probably come across a definition such as the following: “The church is the community of all true believers for all time.”  This definition, though, refers primarily to the universal or global church.  What about the local church that we long to see established where we live and serve?  What are the elements that make up a local church or community?

I remember one of my profs in school walking us through an exercise where we had to write down all the elements that we believed were essential to the local church.  Once our individual lists were established, we then discussed them with fellow students, trying to agree on what were the irreducible elements.  Needless to say, that exercise was not completed in ten minutes.

My friend Steve wrote a blog post a number of months ago which reminded me of that very exercise.  I quote it in its entirety because I think it is relevant to our situation and discussion:

“Let’s drop in to the home of Cornelius (Acts 10). Cornelius and his extended family and friends have just come to know Christ through Peter, the reluctant missionary.

It’s late at night and the next morning Peter and his companions are leaving. Peter hopes to return in the next few months, but there is no guarantee.

Time is running out and Peter needs to explain to Cornelius what it means to be the people of God.

What do they need to form communities of disciples? To leave anything out that is essential will corrupt what this group becomes and what it reproduces. To add anything that is not essential will reduce its ability to function and spread unhindered.

Put yourself in Peter’s place. List every possible element that you could include in helping Cornelius understand what it means be God’s people. Now remove every item you can until what you have left is the irreducible minimum of a church.

Until you can answer that question, you will not see a church planting movement. You may see some churches planted, but not a movement.

Movements know what the essentials of church are, and that’s what they produce and reproduce. Nothing more, and nothing less. Other things may be desirable, but not essential. They slow a movement down. Some elements are so essential, that if they are removed what is left is no longer a church.

What goes down on the list? What gets crossed off?

Luke has his list, the bare bones of what a church is (Acts 2:42-47). Nothing added that would slow down the spread of a movement. Nothing neglected that was essential.

The more you add to that list, the harder it becomes for new believers to form churches in their world. If new believers are not forming churches, you’ll never see a church planting movement. You may plant churches, but they won’t multiply.”

Filed under: Church, Church planting, Reflection | Leave a comment »

Being Mission-ALL is Four

Posted on March 25, 2011 by wtdavid

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!””

The apostle John, in two short verses, captures the vista of God’s activity in the world and His overarching purpose.  As the church universal gathers around the throne, we see that God’s “mission”, His ultimate objective is the salvation of those who would be entered into His worshipping community.  A fourth element that should characterize the community of believers is that it would be “mission-ALL”. 

To be “mission-ALL” means that the community has an identity and a role that is intimately connected with God’s greater desire or mission.  The community aligns all of itself, centers all of itself around God’s desire to reach out.  One writer states: “Mission belongs to our God.  Mission is not ours; mission is God’s.  Certainly, the mission of God is the prior reality out of which flows any mission that we get involved in.  Or, as has been nicely put, it is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world but that God has a church for his mission in the world.  Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission.”

To be “mission-ALL” is not an activity that happens outside the context of the community; something that we do “out there” and that is somehow unrelated to who we are as a community. 

At the very least, to be “mission-ALL” means that the community acts, lives and works, at all times, both gathered and scattered, in ways which are an outflow of their identity and which demonstrate their active engagement in God’s work in this world.  So, what might that look like in the cultural context where you serve?

Filed under: Church, Community, Mission | Leave a comment »

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