• 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!

In Other Worlds bis

Posted on March 22, 2019 by wtdavid

Four years ago, I posted this video to my blog (Thoughts Along the Journey).  It was an interview that I did with my good friend John (WT Canada and WT Papua alumnus) about the book he had written: In Other Worlds.

John went home to be with his Lord a little over a week ago.  Because the Lord taught me much through John and our many discussions together, I wanted to re-post this video.

‘Bis’ is the French word for ‘again’  So, I’m posting this blog again, if for nothing else then to give thanks to God for letting our paths cross and for the influence John had on my life (and the lives of many in World Team).

At the time I first posted this blog post, I wrote: “I so thoroughly enjoyed John’s book and found deep encouragement in it for us as cross cultural workers that I would like to offer a free hard copy to every World Team worker.”

Many took me up on that offer, but if you did not receive a copy and would still like to have one (we have 18 paperback copies remaining), please send a note to Cindy Optiz at global.coordinator@worldteam.org before April 5th.

Make sure you include the following information in your note:

  • Your first and last name
  • Your field
  • Your Sending Centre or partnering mission
  • Your postal address

Filed under: Core Values, History telling, Mission, Sharing the Gospel story | Leave a comment »

Easy to say, hard to do

Posted on September 22, 2015 by wtdavid

The central and core value of World Team is the Gospel. When asked to talk about the Gospel, the words come pretty easily. However, allowing the impact of those words to go to the very depths of our souls is hard work. It’s easy to say what we mean by the Gospel. It’s hard to live out the truth of the Gospel each day.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in talking about the Lord’s Table wrote this: “It speaks to us of the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand … It confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come, as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone. “My son, give me thine heart” (Prov 23:26). God has come to you to save the sinner. Be glad!”easy hard

That quote hit hard. It’s easy for me to see others as sinners; as ‘great, desperate sinners’. It’s a lot harder to view myself that way. However, when I minimize the pollution of sin in my life, I also minimize the work of Christ on my behalf. Christ died for my sins because I had no ability to pay down my spiritual debt, nor any way to restore the honour of God that had been irreparably damaged by my actions.

When I recognize more and more, the great, desperate sinner that I am, the sweeter the message of the Gospel becomes to me.

However, I need others in that battle; to help me remember who I am and what Christ now says about me.

One writer put it this way: “We desperately need to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters in Christ who are truly honest about their sin … they can remind us of the gospel time and time again. These are people who won’t be surprised by your sin when you confess it. They will say, “Of course you sinned … come with me to the throne of grace to celebrate the love of your Saviour and to find help in your time of need.”

Do you have friends like that?

Filed under: Character, Core Values, Gospel | 2 Comments »

In Other Worlds

Posted on March 30, 2015 by wtdavid

I hope you enjoy this interview with John (WT Canada).  I so thoroughly enjoyed John’s book and found deep encouragement in it for us as cross cultural workers that I would like to offer a free hard copy to every World Team worker.

If you would like a free copy of the paperback edition, please send a note to Cindy Nicholson at cindy.nicholson@worldteam.org before April 19, 2015.

Make sure you include the following information in your note:

  • Your first and last name
  • Your field
  • Your Sending Centre or partnering mission
  • Your postal address

Filed under: Core Values, History telling, Mission, Sharing the Gospel story | 2 Comments »

Mutually supporting and openess

Posted on January 28, 2015 by wtdavid

Like most workers, I feel like I have a good read on life and ministry.  The reality is that I can easily be blinded to faults that bring pain and conflict into conversations, relationships and teams. We each see the ‘evident’ needs of others, but lack a larger perspective that shows us our own spiritual growth needs.  I, we, for the most part lack self awareness.encourage-one-another-hands

Being interdependent, being mutually supportive of one another is also a call to get involved in one another’s lives.

The TC4u document (found on the Hub under the Gospel Conversation Café) is one attempt to grapple with how such mutual dependence works itself out in our communities as workers in World Team.  I can talk about community and tell others of the importance of being part of one, but do I personally feel the need and model the need for such mutual support through community?

If you don’t see the need for community, for this need of open and honest sharing, you won’t go seeking it out.

However, if like me, you recognize your lack of self awareness and need of Christ, you will go looking for a group of like minded believers with whom to gather and offer that mutual support to one another; to work at living out community as described in the Scriptures:

  • Encourage one another: 1 Thessalonians 5:11
  • Build up one another: 1 Thessalonians 5:11
  • Pray for another: James 5:16
  • Speak truth (in love) to one another: Ephesians 4:15

Filed under: Community, Core Values, Interdependence | 2 Comments »

Mutually supporting

Posted on January 13, 2015 by wtdavid

One of the core values we hold as World Team global workers is interdependence. On our website, we describe interdependence in this way:  “Interdependence is evident in our conscious desire to embrace partnerships with others who share our passion for the unreached. It is lived out in our teams, networks of national church associations, and sending churches and individuals who make up the broader World Team family.”

That may be good missiological speak, but it doesn’t necessarily tell us what interdependence might look like in our lives and ministries. I kind of like thinking about interdependence as being mutually supportive of one another. It’s about being intentional in working together across team and agency lines.  In some respects, “it’s about all believers everywhere being united together and needing each other.”

Maybe a practical example would help.

The office where I currently work came about through just such mutual support or dependency.  During our first few years in France, I met Pierre (a European sent worker) who was 20150113_140056involved in a church plant near the city.  From our first conversation, I knew we were driven by the same passion.  We met a number of times and had deep conversations about reaching the community here with the Gospel.  One day, Pierre called.  He said that he had heard I was in need of an administrator.  He had someone to send my way.  It was someone from his church who had greatly helped him with the organization and structure of their church plant as it got off the ground.  That is how I met Olivier.  Olivier worked for me for about five years.  During that time, he introduced me to Jean Marc who owns his own business.  We had lunch with Jean Marc numerous times over the past number of years.  Last May, Jean Marc called and said that he had heard I was looking for an office.  He had one to rent to me.

A few things stand out as I look back over this timeline of mutual support:

  • ‘Mutually supportive’ workers were not afraid to share with others resources they had.
  • ‘Mutually supportive’ workers keep their ‘spiritual ears’ open to the needs of others and how they might be able to respond to those needs.
  • ‘Mutually supportive’ workers build networks or bridges between like minded workers

Filed under: Core Values, Interdependence | 2 Comments »

Letting go

Posted on June 25, 2014 by wtdavid

Letting go BalloonsEvery June, a number of our teams around the world welcome interns who come to explore cross cultural ministry and serve alongside us.  Several weeks with interns are a microcosm of the struggle we often have with ‘letting go’, that is, with releasing people into ministry.

Our tendency is to want to do everything for those interns.  They’re interns, and so in our minds they do not really know what they need to do or how to do it.  So, we often graciously step in to ‘guide them through’ each step of the internship.

Effective training includes content and opportunity for testing applications.  In other words, we give people input and then “release” them to look for ways to apply what they have learned.  The best applications are the ones discovered by the training participants themselves.

I remember one group of interns that helped me begin to learn what it means to ‘let go’, to release people to discover ministry application for themselves.

We had just spent an afternoon explaining the metro system here.  We gave the interns several destinations to visit for themselves, figuring out the best way to get back and forth between these destination points and their apartments.  We all left together and headed for the nearest metro station.  As Rebecca and I stood on one side of the platform, we saw all of our interns on the other side.   We were headed home.  They were headed off to their first destination.  They were on the wrong side of the platform!  I was ready to yell over to them, when my wife simply encouraged me to let them discover their mistake themselves.

The lesson wasn’t over.  A week later, we all met at a local church in Paris for meetings.  I asked the interns what metro line they took to get to the church.  The line they took was not the line I would have taken.  I was just about to say that very thing when I realized they had nonetheless gotten to the church. Their route was a good as mine … maybe even better.

‘Letting go’ does not mean we diminish the quality of our training.  It does mean we allow for more individual discovery rather than always making the discovery for others.

 

 

Filed under: Core Values, Development | 4 Comments »

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