• 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!

The ‘why’ behind what we are doing

Posted on March 27, 2014 by wtdavid

core_values_written_in_chalk_on_blackboar_450Every organization has a culture. In other words, every group of people teamed up to fulfill a common purpose creates a context within which they work. That context is shaped by the values or working principles which the group accepts as foundational to how they will live and work together.

World Team has a culture. World Team has a clear set of working principles or values.

Where problems arise is when the values we espouse are not the values by which we actually live. This can happen because past history exercises an undue influence. Or this can happen because we enjoy theological word jousting more than soul exercising discussion. Or this can happen because we’re just tired of trying.

To overcome these problems, it is important to rehearse often with one another what we hold as ‘self-evident truths’ that guide how we minister together.

So, here goes. As a World Team community, we centre our entire lives and work around one foundational value: the Gospel. The Gospel is so simple a child can understand it, but so rich and deep that we as adults can never plum its depths. The Gospel is first of all the message that we can do nothing to either merit or earn our salvation. It has all been done for us in Christ. From there, the Gospel ripples out to ‘touch’ every aspect and area of who we are as His child.

Let’s just look at one element which should characterize the WT community if the Gospel is truly our central and foundational value. As we work together, we should be thinking more about our co-worker, our teammate than ourselves. TJ Addington put it this way: our relationships, our work environment should be “life giving rather than life taking”. Rather than pulling out of others what can serve oneself, one will look for ways to build into the other person.

Wasn’t this Christ’s model, His value?  “For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

 

 

 

Filed under: Core Values, Gospel | 2 Comments »

community: part 2 of 3

Posted on March 12, 2014 by wtdavid

In an earlier post, Bill (WT Canada) had written about his trip to Cameroon and sharing on the theme of community.  In this post, he challenges our thinking further on this issue of community:

“Matthew 4:16-17 says; “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” The truth is we were all living in darkness without the Gospel.

The thing about the Gospel and community is that we are invited into something larger than ourselves, something that includes other people, different than us. Light does not dissolve what is in the darkness, it exposes it, it highlights it, it reveals what is there. We once lived our lives in the darkness without Jesus, in black and white, failing to see clearly we fumbled around bumping into things and others in conflict. The Gospel gives light and reveals others to us. The community to which we are called includes others, different than ourselves that compliment, challenge and encourage us. We have moved from darkness, black and white to living colour – diversity, difference, acceptance – all through the cross.community three people

It is through the cross that we are called into this new community of light and living colour. The world is full of hurting and lost people fumbling around in the dark. The invitation is to come to the cross, to be revealed, to be healed, forgiven and accepted into this new community of living colour where we see clearly. When we repent of ourselves and our sin we can boldly come to the cross and find acceptance in this new community of the redeemed. This is the message we carry as workers. This is the hope that we find in Scripture. Jesus came, as a great light shining on those who were already dead with the invitation to come to the light, to find new life in Him.

The community Jesus calls us to finds expression in different levels. Each is called to uphold, support, encourage and challenge one another. Our World Team family is like that. Leaders, workers, board members, support staff, donors, prayer warriors. All are part of that connecting chain that holds the whole community together focused on the light, Jesus, the cross.”

Filed under: Community, Cross of Christ, Gospel | Leave a comment »

Reading the Bible as a ‘missional worker’

Posted on February 27, 2014 by wtdavid

In his meeting with the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, Jesus “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [he] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”  (Luke 24:27)

Any worker who has a missional mindset or a missions heart reads the Bible through these “glasses”: knowing that Jesus is the main theme.  From Genesis to Revelation, the biblical text points to or speaks of the One who would come to reconcile us to God and who would entrust us with this ministry of proclaiming reconciliation to others.  It’s all about Him.Google Glass video user guide

The focus on this unifying theme is at the base of much oral storytelling of the Bible or progressive Bible study working from the Old to the New.  However, is it really true for us as missional workers?  Are we as enraptured by this truth as we are passionate to share it with others?

The image of the Exodus originally drew attention to the need for deliverance from physical slavery (Exodus 7:16), but Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration talks of His “exodus” (Luke 9:31) being the means by which He would provide deliverance from the spiritual bondage of sin.  This is the message our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors need to hear.

Yet, we need to hear it as well.  Our hearts need to be caught up again with the wonder of His all out effort to redeem us, to buy us back for Himself from our rebellion and turning away from Him.  A missional worker must draw his/her resources from this well.

Here’s a thought: take the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14) or the notion of the priesthood (Numbers 1:13) and write down how Christ and His work is exemplified as the truth of this event or idea is run through the entire Scriptures.  Then stop and give thanks to God for Christ’s work in this way and ask Him to apply it strongly to your life again today.

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Gospel, Jesus Christ, Reflection | 1 Comment »

Becoming aware (ii)

Posted on February 11, 2014 by wtdavid

The Protestant reformer, John Calvin, makes this statement at the very outset of the Institutes of the Christian Religion: “Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God.”  Another way to express this thought might be that to serve God and others well, we need to regularly take a hard look at ourselves.Self reflection

In other words, self awareness comes from a hearty self analysis.

Jeannie posted this comment after the previous blog post: “One of my core beliefs on becoming more self-aware is that it occurs best in the context of accountability or a Biblical community model. When we invite others in to find out how they perceive us, or what impressions we give off – we are seeking, in humility, a better version of ourselves, one that looks more like Jesus. The only way to gather that kind of information is to be vulnerable, to seek each other out, and to rub shoulders in ministry so we can truly observe one another and potential blind spots.”

Definitely!  Probing to understand how we are being “received” by others must occur in the context of a small group to which we are accountable.  Yet, there is work to be done on our end as well. The heart cry of the Psalmist is: “Search me, O God and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there is any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”  (Psalm 139:23-24).  Such Spirit-led self analysis could come through asking oneself a number of questions such as:

  • When I receive negative feedback about myself from others, how do I normally respond?
  • What would demonstrate that I have or do not have a good sense of how I cope with situations that are ambiguous and uncertain?
  • I am conscious of the areas in which conflict and friction most frequently arise in my interactions with others?

There are lots of other questions that can help us dig deeper into our hearts in order to become more self aware, and as a result more aware of how we can serve others well.

What questions come to your mind that help ‘dig deeper’ into your heart motivations and make you more self aware?  Are you able to share the answers to those questions with a trusted friend or group?

 

 

Filed under: Gospel, Self awareness | 2 Comments »

I read it in a book

Posted on February 4, 2014 by wtdavid

A lot of you are readers, like me.  We enjoying “swapping” or sharing insights that we have gleaned from the latest book (or article) we have read or been reading.  Usually the conversation starts off something like this: “Interesting that you should say that.  I was just reading something along those lines in ….” It is great to hear about what others are reading and profit from one another as we share what we are learning.Young-man-reading-a-book-001

However, reading a book or hearing someone’s summary or insights does not mean that you have actually appropriated those insights for yourself or “taken them downtown to your heart” as one writer puts it.

I have read a number of books on the Gospel over the past number of months: The Prodigal God, The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness, and Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary.  Each of these books has great insights and I could easily delineate some of those truths. Real change, though, comes as I interact with others and we ask one another the hard questions of what will be the outcomes of such insights in our lives and ministries.  What will transformation really look like for each of us?  How does the Spirit apply such insights and work change in our hearts?

If I’m just a ‘talking head’ of insights, I would be better helped by someone coming alongside and ‘talking me through’ my learning to be able to move it from my head to my heart.

Filed under: Gospel, Lifelong learning | 6 Comments »

How to not let the Gospel change our hearts

Posted on January 30, 2014 by wtdavid

Complacency can easily blur our vision, rob us of the joy we have in Christ and make us weary and tired saints. The search for power over our world runs deep in our hearts so much so that we can enjoy feeding more on ‘self’ than on Christ.

However, there is still another way that inhibits the impact of the Gospel in our lives; that causes us to be unconsciously learning day by day how not to let the Gospel change our lives.  It’s when we allow something else to become more important in our hearts than Jesus.

For many of us, that ‘more important something else’ is our ministry. heart centre

A disciple walks away from Christ; a Bible study or house church turns sour; or someone raises a question about the long term fruit of our ministry.  When any one of these events happens, we find ourselves immediately in the red zone.  You know, that area where our responses and reactions to any further comments or questions are out of proportion to the actual situation.

“What kind of church planter am I?”  “What was that disciple’s problem?” “No one really understands my ministry.”  These statements or questions we often say to ourselves are self directed, not other directed.  In other words, they don’t push us to ask some harder questions of ourselves.

Stepping back from our ministries, we should be asking ourselves if in our ministry we rely more on our own capacities than the Holy Spirit.  Or we might ask if our avoidance of a plan and priorities might actually hinder the growth and development of disciples.

Our ministry is a possible “savior” we might turn to other than Jesus.  There are many more.  We identify other “saviors” when overreaction occurs as someone gets in between us and that idol.  The Gospel displaces all other saviors when one affection, one passion overwhelms our heart and takes full possession of it.  May we be passionate about Christ alone.

Filed under: Gospel | 2 Comments »

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