• 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!

Captivated by sin more than by Jesus

Posted on January 7, 2015 by wtdavid

A fellow worker from the WT community forwarded me a challenging article on: “The Danger of Fruitfulness without Purity”.  I would commend it to your reading and reflection.

The final challenge from this article got me wondering as to how such a change actually begins to work itself out in my life: “If we will simply return to the power and the beauty of the gospel, not only will the Lord grant fruit, but it will be fruit that will endure and bring his name great glory for eternity.  Let’s live and end well for that great name.”

That led me to a book that one of my mentors recently sent my way: Prone to Wander.  The authors provide practical ways to work out the exhortation of the excellent article above from Desiring God Ministries.  It comes through confession of heart difficulties and allowing the Holy Spirit to apply again and again ‘the power and grace that is ours through the work of Christ on the cross.’

repentance and faithOur hearts can so easily be captivated more by sin than by Jesus and His work on our behalf.  Let me quote a large section of one of the first prayers in Prone to Wander as a practical aid in learning to respond more quickly to the call to repentance and faith:

O God, our Father, forgive us for our many sins.  Like Eve [and Adam], we are easily captivated by the objects that our eyes desire.  We fall so often, and when we do, we run and hide in shame instead of running to you to confess our sin and find joy and forgiveness in the cross.  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.

Jesus, you are our strong salvation. Thank you for invading our world to rescue us from ourselves.  We cannot fathom the humility, love, and commitment to your Father’s glory, which led you to give up heaven for us.  When the Holy Spirit took you into the desert to be tempted by Satan, you kept your eyes fixed firmly on your Father, your soul devoted to serving him in perfect obedience, and your mind saturated with Scripture.  You gave up your own glory to be stripped, humiliated, and shattered in death, so that you could serve us and be our substitute.  The joy or your life was fixed firmly upon the will of God, and now we find the joy of our lives to be your obedience for us and your death in our place.  How can we ever thank you adequately?  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.

Filed under: Community, Repentance & faith, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

We’re on a mission

Posted on January 6, 2015 by wtdavid

mission unstoppableKenneth Berding wrote the following in his short article, “At the Intersection of Mission and Spiritual Formation in the Letters of Paul”: The process of spiritual formation supports mission because the person on a mission is upheld in his work as he experiences ongoing transformation … This may be the area most emphasized in Paul’s writings regarding how important spiritual formation is for mission.  Paul writes: “… we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”  (2 Cor. 4:2).  There is a transformation that takes place through the ministry of the Spirit while one is on the mission – a transformation “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:17-18).”

At the start of this new year, knowing that there are several ‘bends in the road’ ahead of us, it is important to remind ourselves that all our work is an overflow of our deepening relationship with Christ and the ongoing transformation being worked by His Spirit as He searches our hearts (Psalm 139) and drives us back to our only Hope: Jesus.

We’re on a mission.

However, that mission is not just the task of taking the Gospel to others.  It is the work of daily putting self to death and learning to live more and more to righteousness.

We’re on a mission.

Part of that ‘putting self to death’ may involve opening ourselves up more and more to others, so that God might use those people to build us up more and more into the image of Christ.  The mission of transformation goes through community.

We’re on a mission.

This means that there will be attitudes and reactions we will lay down as individuals and as a community this year, so that we might affirm more loudly with our voice and with all our heart: We’re on a mission … giving thanks to Jesus for working in us and through us.

Filed under: Community, Gospel, Transformation | 5 Comments »

Miss trust

Posted on December 22, 2014 by wtdavid

Decision making may not be an easy science, but we can grow in our competence in regards to the various decision making approaches. Several of you suggested tools that are available to help us get needed training in the different ways to process decisions in groups or individually. The real sticking point, however, comes when we start talking about the context or the atmosphere in which decisions are made, particularly when a decision is made where one doesn’t have a ‘vote’.trust sandy

Trust has a major bearing on the context created.  Trust means that I give or grant you the right to influence my life and work.  I don’t do that quickly necessarily, but once I give you my trust, I know that you will act with my best interests in mind.

However, because we are often more self sufficient than other centred, we can chafe under decisions made by others.  We don’t like it when others ‘make decisions for us’ or ‘in our place’.  Our words and thoughts at that moment often communicate that my world is no larger than myself; that though I may speak about accountability, I am ultimately believe I am accountable to myself alone.

This stance runs counter to the biblical call to community.  Yes, community implies sharing of tasks and responsibilities.  However, it also implies that others may be making decisions for the group because group members have chosen to ‘trust’ that person to lead the group well.

When we ‘miss’ trust, we can end up doing everything ourselves.  We can hold back from sharing responsibilities with others.  We can become islands unto ourselves that ‘bump’ into each other at meetings rather than deeply intersect with one another’s lives.

Trust takes time to build, but it begins when we simply say to another: “I trust you.  I know you have my best interests in mind.  I will be a Christ like follower, bringing my best part to the work of this group.”

Filed under: Community, Trust | 2 Comments »

The Gospel digs deeper … again

Posted on September 4, 2014 by wtdavid

Last week, Rebecca and I participated in the Mission14: Vision Forward Europe Area Conference.  Two things caught my attention and reminded me of how the Gospel ‘must go somewhere’ when it floods into a person’s or a community’s heart.mission14-logo

First, the theme for the week was personal and leader development.  As Albert spoke on leader development, he emphasized that the foremost characteristic a leader needs to develop in his/her life is humility.  Of all the elements he could have chosen, he chose an element that only the Gospel could produce in a leader’s life. The antithesis of humility is pride which can only be rooted out by the Spirit’s work to drive us to faith and repentance.

Albert used John the Baptist as his primary example, pointing out the fact that at a given moment in his ministry John began pointing people away from himself to Jesus. A good leader, a gospel centred leader points people not to himself or herself, but back to Jesus.

Second, as I looked around the room, I was amazed by the large number of cultures represented. Yes, there were some struggles in communication, but we were all joined together in a common cause, a shared vision.  We experienced in a small way what the Church is and should be.  The only way that such a disparate group of people could fellowship and serve together would be as a result of God’s Spirit transforming hearts and breaking down barriers which would normally exist between people.

What I felt during that week was something I’m hoping will grow into a much larger reality across World Team as the Gospel continues to drive us back to Him, and asking that He will add more workers to His harvest from everywhere.

Filed under: Community, Gospel, Humility | 4 Comments »

The Gospel digs deeper

Posted on August 19, 2014 by wtdavid

Last week, we had a flood in our basement. It came from the aeration ducts on our patio.  Each duct has a pretty deep hole, but when there is more water than space in the hole it overflows through a vent into our basement.

That’s not a bad image for the Gospel being ‘poured out into our hearts’.  It fills the spaces in our hearts so much that it overflows and has to go somewhere.

However, ‘the Gospel’ can easily become a cliché in WT speak and lose its ‘capacity’ to disturb our regular habits or practices.  If it starts to dig deeper though; if we make way for it to overflow into and search our hearts to see what hurtful ways there might be (Psalm 139), we would be ‘flooded’ in good and godly ways, causing us to change displeasing ways.

Here’s one place that the Gospel should ‘flood’ and change.  It’s in our conversations about one another, sharing their “stories”. Sometimes the sentence starts out innocently, but ends with: “I can’t understand why they …” I’m sure most of us could fill in the rest of that sentence as someone immediately comes to mind.

Maybe we should call this for what it really is: gossip. women-gossiping

I’m sometimes amazed when I hear from someone a distorted version of something I shared in confidence with another and that has now been passed down through several parties.  I’m even more amazed that no one along the path questioned the further sharing of that story or thought to go back to the original source of the story to verify its authenticity.  I’m surprised when I hear someone sharing details about another person’s struggle in the form of a prayer request.

Obviously, I’m just scratching the surface of this whole issue.  However, the Gospel should ‘flood’ gossip out of our lives.  How that works, is another story.

Filed under: Community, Gospel | Leave a comment »

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 »

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