• 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!

Where do we go from here?

Posted on July 18, 2014 by wtdavid

Just one more thought before I take a break from writing for two weeks: if we are agreed that the term ‘church planting’ needs to be expanded and restated, what do we do now?  Where do we go from here to communicate well the passion of investing our lives in such an adventure? where do we go from here

Here are a few ideas to mull over:

First, soak ourselves in the Scriptures, and particularly in the history of the expansion of the Church.  As I have been reading the book of Acts in recent days, I’m constantly amazed at the multifaceted outworking of discipling and bringing others into community.  It feels like discipleship and community are always in flux; shifting and adapting to new contexts (see Acts 11).  All the while, holding to the one firm objective of seeing everyone grow up together in Christ.

Second, listen to practitioners.  Oftentimes, in just listening to those engaged in ‘church planting’ on a day to day basis, we discover new ways of describing or painting the work.  Taking the time to just hear one another out might actually produce a host of new expressions as to a fuller picture of ‘church planting’

Finally, try out several new terms, concepts and images on one another.  The way that new expressions make it into our language and vocabulary is because people start using a term and it suddenly takes root in the mindset and heart of others.  We would benefit from trying out new ideas in community with one another; being willing to accept honest feedback and drop terms or images that don’t do justice to the passionate journey we are on.  However, some images or concepts might take hold and open up new ways to talk about our passion.

Whether you’re out in the garden, walking the streets of Hong Kong or sitting at the beach, why not give some time to ruminating on these ideas and see what God brings to your heart and mind.

 

 

 

Filed under: Church planting, Community | Tagged: | 5 Comments »

Is Church Planting Too Narrow a Focus?

Posted on July 15, 2014 by wtdavid

Sometimes in conversation with people from around the globe, I will hear a comment which goes something like the following: “So, your mission is only focused on church planting?  I’m not sure that really plays well to potential workers today.”  What I think people are trying to say is that ‘church planting’ is somewhat out of date, too restrictive, or that the term doesn’t really communicate passion and vision to potential workers.churchplanting

Agreed. The term church planting (CP) might not communicate well in our media saturated context and it could convey the idea that we’re just concerned with building a building and moving on.  However, I think church planting is oftentimes undersold.

Building communities is not only a wild ride of spiritual passion, it is varied in its activities and outcomes.

For one, building communities pushes a person to their limit because you always ‘work from a blank page’.  Jerry (WT France) used this expression recently to describe the work in Western Europe and I think there is a lot of truth in what he said.  It’s about starting something from scratch by looking around to see what God is already doing, how you can join in partnership with others, and what ways you can facilitate the work of seeing people commit to Christ and live out their spiritual journey in a different cultural context.

For another, building communities involves addressing the total needs of people, and in particular their spiritual needs.  Everyone we meet has a host of needs that range from physical to emotional to spiritual.  The Bible is pretty clear that we cannot just address spiritual needs when the physical needs of a person are staring us in the face.  It is a multifaceted task to which we are called.

And finally, building communities means admitting daily you don’t have the capacity or ability to do ALL the work.  It calls for distributing, delegating and sharing the work across a large number of people.  It means learning, really learning to work collaboratively with others, where sometimes their ideas are chosen over ours.

Church planting may not be the best term to communicate what we are about.  Perhaps it’s building communities. Perhaps it’s something else.  Whatever the term, the elements which make up that work get my heart, and the hearts of many others, pumping.

Filed under: Church planting, Collaboration | 8 Comments »

The myth of being irreplacable

Posted on January 16, 2013 by wtdavid

mythbusters1

Bob Vajko, in an article in the recent edition of EMQ, writes that one of the first mistakes a church planter can make is “to wrongly develop dependency in the church we are planting.”  Most often, we err by doing so much in the early start up that community members come to believe that we are the only ones capable of doing the ministry.

By this, we create the myth of being irreplaceable.

It is not our intention at the outset to create this myth. God called us to be part of a community of workers that “establish and go” rather than “establish and stay”.  However, as time goes on, our investment in the work increases and it becomes more difficult to move on or to let go of the ministry and give it into others’ hands.

A few ‘myth-busters’ would serve us well at this point:

Others are capable of doing the ministry.  It’s such an obvious fact, but we can tend to measure capability by a standard that even the best disciple of Jesus would struggle with.  Having a developmental mindset or attitude towards others will encourage us to put others more quickly into ministry situations in order to allow them to ‘try out’ the ministry in a context of mentoring and coaching.

We ourselves entered into ministry in the same way.  None of us jumped from Sunday School into full-time church planting like some high school basketball players have done in jumping to the NBA professional league.  We were nurtured, discipled and trained by others and we grew into the ministry. Why should we expect it to be any different for those who become part of the communities of believers we are part of starting?  However, they need opportunities to serve and we need to give those opportunities to them from the very start.

People often do fine without us.  When the church planter is not present, it’s amazing how a community pulls together and does church.  As long as the church planter is present, some will never rise to the occasion.  However, should an opportunity present itself, those disciples who have been trained will assume their places of ministry.

We are as much a part of the community of believers that we are establishing as any other member.  Our role, though, needs to be from the very start one which develops, trains and releases others quickly into ministry and service.

 

Filed under: Church planting, Delegation, Training | Leave a comment »

More on Core Skills

Posted on December 10, 2012 by wtdavid

We all recognize that evangelism is an integral part of church planting.  But does it stand alone?  Or is it the first step towards discipling people to become committed followers of Jesus who will in turn make other disciples?  We call this reproduction and multiplication.  One focus of this on-line core skills module (Evangelism: Abundantly Sowing the Seed) is to think and do evangelism with the end in mind, that is, to share the Gospel in such a way that churches multiply. CS-masthead-logo

The course speaks to our motivation for sharing Christ (something we admit we all wrestle with at times) and exploring how we evangelize in a way that sows the seeds of multiplication.  Other topics include: the role of prayer in sharing our faith, evangelism as a means of ‘discipling the lost’ and what it means to find a person of peace.

Another topic looks at contextualization in the book of Acts and what the Scriptures teach us about contextualizing the unchanging message of the gospel today.  We also look at how ‘spiritual conversations’ can be used when interacting with neighbors and others, as a bridge to sharing Jesus with them.  Contextualization looks very different in our many ministry settings.

Trained WT facilitators will be leading this initiative.  I will be encouraging all Area Directors to send dates and sign-up information to field directors and all field workers for offering the module in 2013.

Filed under: Church planting, Competency, Sharing the Gospel story | 3 Comments »

TC4u

Posted on April 19, 2012 by wtdavid

What would transformational community look like for you?  To put it in a text message version: What would TC4u look like?  This is the question we seek to answer in working out the second global priority: Each worker/leader will relate in a community where he/she experiences teaching, repentance, and new patterns of biblical living.

Dick Scoggins, who spoke at Mission11 Europe last summer, has written extensively on this subject in the context of establishing new communities of believers (www.dickscoggins.com).  There are many others who have written about transformational or apostolic communities as well.

However, we need to describe anew what we (World Team) mean by community.  In the next few weeks, I will be launching a working group to look into this topic and come back to me with recommendations and applications for us as a WT community.

Our desire is to train one another to live out in tangible ways the truth that: “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.”

 

Next post: Are you joining in the discussion?

Filed under: Church planting, Community | 3 Comments »

So What About Character Development?

Posted on April 18, 2012 by wtdavid

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his work entitled, Life Together, said this about community: “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.”  I would contend that part of the ‘incomparable joy and strength’ that the community brings to a believer is to assist them to grow in character development.

The fourth chapter in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (as well as all the one another commands) is a case study for the need of community in order for character to develop. In that chapter, all the action words are in the plural ‘you’, indicating the need for one another to be able to grow in who we are in Christ.

Another of our global priorities speaks to this need: Each worker/leader will relate in a community where he/she experiences teaching, repentance, and new patterns of biblical living.

Community, team-time together, is first of all a place where true transformation happens and continues to happen in the life of the believer, of the worker.  This community will give rise to national fellowships as those workers spread out and share the story of Christ with those they are meeting.

This community time is more than just a sharing and prayer time.  It is a time where we hold one another to what the Scriptures call us to live out as a community, where we challenge, pray and encourage ‘one another’ in the Gospel.

 

Next post: TC4u

Filed under: Church planting, Community | 2 Comments »

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