• 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!

Jesus, the Only Saviour

Posted on August 15, 2012 by wtdavid

It seems that my post from Monday struck a chord with a number of people.  Many could relate to the struggle of becoming a ‘saviour’ to those we are discipling and mentoring.  The trap is one we easily fall into because our hearts are warmed when others put such confidence in us.  However, our hearts need to be trained to warn us of “misplaced confidence” and to consistently point others to Jesus, the only Saviour.

Misplaced confidence is when others consider that they cannot move forward or continue in the Christian journey without us.  Oswald Chambers puts it this way when he speaks to those mentored by others: “But remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your guide and your leader, because God does not intend for him to stay. Even the thought of that causes you to say, “I cannot continue without my ’Elijah.’ ” Yet God says you must continue.”  Our confidence, as well as the trust that others express, must be in God; not in ourselves nor in one another (Psalm 20:7; Proverbs 3:26).  When we allow misplaced confidence to continue, though it may be a boost to our spiritual pride, it will spiritually cripple any follower.

To consistently point others to Jesus, the only Saviour requires that we develop the reflex to turn situations and questions into learning moments where we go back to Jesus together to find Him and all that He promises to give to His children such as wisdom, discernment, hope and the fruit of the Spirit.  It is so much easier to just answer a disciple’s queries than it is to push him/her back to Jesus and His Word.

Once again this is why we need the input of a community around us as we seek to learn how to direct others to know more deeply their need of a Saviour, and that it is not us.

 

Filed under: Community, Reflection | Leave a comment »

Going Slow

Posted on August 13, 2012 by wtdavid

Jesus’ words to His disciples in Mark 6:31, in the midst of a hectic ministry schedule, should cause us to stop and reflect on our need for “rest”.  Jesus says to them: “”Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”

When I say “rest”, I am not talking about inactivity, but about stepping back and asking some hard questions about what rules or governs our time.  Getting away for holiday is important, but there is another “rest” we need to consider as well.  Ministry can be intoxicating.  The ‘rush’ of people in need and the feeling that we are having an impact in the lives of others can drive us past our limits: “and they had no leisure even to eat.”

Here are some questions that come to mind in this regard:

  • How well I am able to say ‘no’?  This is not to imply that we say ‘no’ to every new ministry opportunity that comes our way, but most of us struggle with over commitment rather than under commitment.  Learning to say ‘no’ means I am learning to prioritize well.
  • How have I become blind to God’s work in my life and another’s life by becoming their savior instead of Jesus?  Sometimes our desire to help another actually hinders another from learning to live out their faith on their own with Jesus.
  • What would it look like for me to ‘go slow’ and gain another perspective on life and ministry at this juncture in my walk with Christ?

These are not easy questions, nor is this an easy exercise.  It is interesting that Jesus called the disciples as a group to get away together.  Maybe this is another reason why we need the input of a community around us as we seek to “rest”, step back and evaluate what we should be giving ourselves to in ministry.

 

Filed under: Community, Priorities | 4 Comments »

Collaboration or what?

Posted on May 2, 2012 by wtdavid

A little over two years ago, we as a World Team community launched a mobilization effort to increase the number of workers in cross cultural ministry by five to seven percent.  This is a laudable goal; an objective that requires we work together and respond corporately to this challenge.

One on-line author [http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2011/05/when-teams-only-think-they-col.html] describes three possible ways for teams to respond in such a situation.

One approach is compliance. This is where each individual independently responds to the challenge.   Now there is nothing wrong with this approach as it works to spread the burden across a large number of people.  However, working together is not a natural outcome of compliance.  In fact, people could comply without even talking with others.

A second approach is cooperation.  This is where individuals work on a response to the need, but share their ideas with others.  In spite of the sharing, though, the ultimate focus is still on individual efforts and not on a collective response.

A third approach is collaboration.  This is where the effort from the start is focused on the larger group rather than the individual.  How the group can discuss and work together towards a collective response becomes the objective.  There may be a sharing of resources across groups or areas in order to better respond to the challenge.

The on-line author (see link above) summarizes this way: “What’s interesting is that teams do not consciously decide not to collaborate.  Instead they do what comes naturally; which is to work either completely or partially on their own.  The reality is that true collaboration is difficult and time consuming.  It requires subordinating individual goals to collective achievement.”

To achieve our mobilization challenge, it is collaboration that we need.

 

 

Filed under: Collaboration, Community, Mobilization | 4 Comments »

It’s a big word, collaborate

Posted on April 26, 2012 by wtdavid

We often use words like ‘cooperate’ or ‘work together’ to describe our desire to carry out projects with others.  Collaboration though is much larger than these ideas.  It is more extensive and involves greater partnership on the part of each person collaborating.

You might define collaboration as “people from wide spheres and backgrounds laboring together towards a jointly held project or outcome.”

Collaboration would then:

  • Affirm our core value of interdependence by taking the time to work in a group or community
  • Seek involvement from co-workers in my area as well as from outside, including outside my own ‘culture’ or context
  • Break down the silo mentality that keeps us from making the effort to draw others into project because it ‘takes too much time to involve them’
  • Genuinely seek and listen to the contribution of each collaborator, knowing that the result will be a better project and greater ownership

I put it this way in drafting a third global priority for WT: “Seeking broader collaboration, our workers/leaders will move away from a strict organizational chart approach and move towards more overlapping spheres of influence.”

 

Next post: Spheres of influence?

Filed under: Community, Priorities | Leave a comment »

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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