• 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!

Fall on our faces before the Lord

Posted on September 20, 2016 by wtdavid

I’ve always been struck by the image in the Old Testament of one ‘falling on one’s face before the Lord’.  One passage in particular that comes to mind is Ezekiel 1 where we read: “Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.”  (1:28).fall-on-one-face

I often associate such a stance of prostration before the Lord as one of fear.  Certainly, a godly fear or respect is present.  However, the act of falling on one’s face before the Lord is an ultimate sign of submission, humility and total dependence.

One blog commentator had this to say about Ezekiel’s stance before the Lord: “I wonder how our lives would be different if we began to grasp the majesty and holiness of God. I wonder how our churches would be different if, even for a moment, we glimpsed the glory of God as did Ezekiel. Not only might we fall on our faces before the Lord, but we might also be empowered afresh to serve him in every facet of our lives.”

Our mission statement states that we exist ‘to glorify God by working together to establish reproducing churches’.  We exist, we live to glorify God; to fall on our face in recognition of our total need for Him to do anything in life and ministry. That ‘falling on our face’ before Him should then thrust us out into service.

As cross cultural workers, this is our ‘clarion call’.  However, our actions often times communicate something very different.  Our actions sometimes state that we are more about building our own kingdom and value than we are about God’s kingdom.  Our actions sometimes get the message across that ministry is more about us than it is about Jesus.  Our actions sometimes are telling people that we are looking for their praise, rather than encouraging them to give praise to the God of glory!

Falling on one’s face is a picture of submission, humility and dependence.  Falling on one’s face before the Lord is also a picture of the daily repentance needed to lay aside all that in our lives takes away from His glory; it is a repentance that opens the way to receive again all He has for us in Jesus.

Filed under: Gospel, Humility, Prayer | Leave a comment »

Stand up with me

Posted on September 19, 2016 by wtdavid

A number of months ago, I saw this commercial online and felt it captured, in a humorous way, the struggle that many of us have in ministry calling others to join us in the vision God has placed before us.

As believers, we talk a lot about community, working together, teamwork, and learning how to carry out the ‘one another’ exhortations.  However, in practice we are at times reticent to join with others; to stand up with them.  The simple reason being that we believe we often have a better idea or better vision than the one being suggested. Instead of giving support to a vision, we prefer to evaluate and critique that direction.  Is this beginning to sound a little like a group that wandered through the desert for a number of years?

Now I’m not suggesting that we each drop the dream God may have given to each of us.  However, it is time for us as a World Team global community to stand up together and to lock arms together to fulfill the mission & vision God has given to us: Innovative teams multiplying disciples and communities of believers, bringing the Gospel within reach of lost people everywhere we go.

It’s time for us as a World Team global community to stand up together and share our resources with one another (human, prayer, intellectual and financial).  It’s time we stand up together and challenge young and old into cross cultural ministry with us.  The idea of World Team growing to 500 workers in the next five years will not happen if we don’t stand up together and mobilize together.  It’s time we stand up together and speak the Gospel to one another day in and day out so that our confidence would be in the Lord and not in ourselves.  It’s time we stand up together and live by what we say are our guiding principles and organizational ethos, and fulfill our central ministry focus.

Will you stand up together with me?

Filed under: Community, Gospel, Vision, WT Ministry Framework | 1 Comment »

Did you say ‘passion’?

Posted on September 3, 2016 by wtdavid

In a recent post, I asked the question as to where had our passion gone.  I started out with an example of my waning passion for training runs.

Well, the other day, while getting myself back out on a run, I jogged through a neighboring town, only to see the following sign on the front wall of an evangelical church pastored by a friend.

20160821_095113Loosely translated, it says: “A passion to share”.

Did your say ‘passion’?

There it was again, that notion of a passionate message to share that comes out of a heart that is more and more deeply rooted in our passion for Christ and His passion and love for us.

Then I came across this YouTube video by a Christian young peoples’ musical group in our area.  That was sort of the proverbial ‘icing on the cake’.  You may not understand all the words, but one of the lines in the song talks about ‘voices overflowing with passion’; a passion that flows from who He is and what He has done for us.

Passion is not something I work up.  It grows, it deepens, it bubbles up from a heart that chooses to focus its interest, affections and time on Him.

Filed under: Gospel, Jesus Christ, Passion | Leave a comment »

Influencing one another

Posted on June 7, 2016 by wtdavid

I really do like the World Team Ministry Framework. It captures the essentials of who we are and what we do.  However, at times, I can look at the World Team Ministry Framework as a collection of individual elements or pieces to which I need to give attention.  I do not always look at it as an ‘interactive highway’ of fundamentals that are constantly influencing each other.interactive highway

For example, how does the Gospel influence our call to ‘reach’ and ‘invest’ in people each day? Or how does our growth in collaboration influence our call to act more ‘holistically’ in our ministries?  Or how do facilitation and our work in teams impact releasing others into ministry?

There are obviously a host of combinations to consider, but all that to say that we have so much more to learn from each other about how the World Team Ministry Framework works itself out in our lives and ministries.

So, this is my invitation to you to explore together how some of these ‘combinations’ work themselves out and influence our lives and ministries.

Let’s ‘talk’ about the first combination I suggested: How does the Gospel influence our call to ‘reach’ and ‘invest’ in people each day? 

Post your comments to this post and I’ll try to summarize what we ‘discover’ together in a future post.

Filed under: Collaboration, Gospel, Uncategorized, WT Ministry Framework | 3 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 »

Ever feel lonely?

Posted on May 19, 2016 by wtdavid

Ever feel like you are standing in a crowd, but no one recognizes you and engages you in conversation? Ever feel like you are the unnecessary ‘extra’ in a group and wish someone could just ‘beam you up Scotty’?  Ever feel lonely?loneliness

Loneliness is that emotion where we deeply sense our loss of connection to others; where we know in our hearts that we are ‘unplugged’ relationally.

That loneliness can be the result of a number of factors. We may be a ‘foreigner’ in a culture where we have been called to live and minister, and we feel that loneliness because nothing is familiar.  We may be an ‘older person’ surrounded by the new younger generation of workers, and we sense that loneliness because we feel ‘old’ and misunderstood.  We may be a single on a team of married couples, and we feel that loneliness  because we are like that proverbial 5th wheel, not sure of our place and role.  We may be from one culture, working among a team with a majority of members from another culture, and ministering together among another culture.  In that situation, we feel that loneliness because we are always fighting to have ourselves heard, misunderstood and appreciated.

I am not trying to be simplistic by saying that community is one of the best ways to dispel loneliness in our lives. However, the Bible certainly leaves us with this distinct impression.  However, our communities often tend to accentuate rather than dispel loneliness. That happens because we, as individual members, look to the community to meet our needs, rather than offering acceptance and engagement to all members of the community.  When we move towards others in the community and relationally ‘plug back in’ with those who are part of our community, we begin to dispel the cloud of loneliness.

At a wedding that Rebecca & I attended a few weeks ago, the pastor made this comment: “Love is all about initiative: we taking initiative to move towards others, just as God took the initiative to move towards us.”

I’m not sure how all this works out, but calling us back to examining what gospel community should truly look like, is certainly a first step.

Filed under: Community, Crossing cultures, Gospel | 6 Comments »

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