• 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!

Finding a good friend

Posted on January 28, 2022 by wtdavid

The Bible tells us that “a friend loves at all times” (Proverbs 17:17).

For most of us, we read that text as meaning a friend will always be kind to us, never critical.  However, a quick survey of other passages in the book of Proverbs, for example, shows us that a friend is someone who with grace can bring us up short for our own good and growth in Christ.

“Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.”

“Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.”

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”

Finding a good friend involves building a friendship with someone you can trust to remind you of the love of God for you demonstrated at the cross.  But it also involves finding someone you can trust to honestly confront or challenge you when your words and your actions are not aligned.   

Most of us don’t like that element of friendship. I don’t like it.  And yet, it is one of the essential components of how God seeks to sanctify our hearts and deepen us in our communion with Him and others.

We can add another twist to this search for a good friend.  Most of us live in a culture which is not our home passport culture.  Many of us will build friendships in this second culture with those from our home passport culture who happen to live there as well, and there is nothing wrong with that.  However, building a good friendship with someone from the new culture where you live and serve adds another dynamic.

It teaches us dependency upon God (we could call it: humility) in a different way.  It reminds us of the immensity and depth of the body of Christ.  And it offers us a friend who may be able to point out areas of our life that we were able to hide from others in our own home passport culture.

If you haven’t found such a friend in the culture where you serve, I would challenge you to pray that God would lead you to such a friend for His glory, your growth, and the ongoing demonstration of the power of the Gospel to change hearts, beginning with our own.

Filed under: Friendship, Grace, Honesty | 2 Comments »

Community can happen in a weekend

Posted on March 6, 2017 by wtdavid

I just spent the past weekend with a dozen other cross cultural workers and leaders.  They came from all over the globe and are engaged in a variety of ministries.  We ‘thought’ the common denominator was that we all have the same executive coach.community Very quickly, we realized that the same common denominator was (and is) the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sounds obvious, you might say.   However, that common denominator allowed us to rather quickly build community between us.

Author Scott Peck in his book, A Different Drum, argues that community is built in a variety of ways, but that it is not always a function of time. This weekend brought that insight home.

There was nothing ‘fancy’ or complex about how we spent our time together. The first night, we shared with one another our background and family.  The next two days, we each presented our ministries, beginning with a Bible verse that has been meaningful to us.  No big Bible exposition.  The next person presenting prayed for the person who had just presented.  The last night, we shared what are ways to thrive (not survive) in ministry.  There was plenty of discussion around the meal tables as well as when we walked through the city.

The last night, one of the youngest among us said that she was amazed at how quickly she felt ‘at home’ to be able to share her heart; there was ‘safety’ in this community.  People understood the world she lived in and could spoke honestly to her.

We all need community.  One of the elements of our WT Ministry Framework is growing in community.  That community can take many forms and happen in different ‘time frames’.

Let us not shy away from community because it takes time, because it makes us vulnerable to others.  It took ‘time’ to participate in this retreat; not in terms of quantity, but in terms of choosing to spend my time differently than I might have this past weekend. Let us grow continually in community because the fruit will be evident in how we thrive in ministry, how we grow in resiliency.

Filed under: Community, Honesty, Sharing the Gospel story | 2 Comments »

“He’ll change us completely”

Posted on April 13, 2015 by wtdavid

A fellow World Team worker sent me the following link to an article about community which I found very challenging and with questions for further reflection: https://newwaymin.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/hell-change-us-completely/

Take the time to read this article.

 

 

Filed under: Community, Honesty | Leave a comment »

The Difficulty of Honesty

Posted on April 3, 2015 by wtdavid

One of the reasons that I liked John’s book, In Other Worlds, was because of the simple honesty with which he shared his journey as a cross cultural worker.Honesty

As cross cultural workers, oftentimes we are averse to honesty about our ministry journey.  We can feel as if it doesn’t ‘play well’ to supporters, friends, or those praying for us.  We hesitate from sharing when a ministry project fails or doesn’t produce the fruit for which we were praying.  We try to put a positive spin on such a situation, so that others will continue to think well of us and our work.

John pointed us back to the truth that it is in our weakness that we find our strength.  It is when we find ourselves at ‘the end of ourselves’ that we see God’s faithfulness and love to use people like ourselves, ‘wrecks that we are’, for His mission.

There is actually a freedom in believing that the ministry is all about God’s work in our lives and others’ lives.  It allows us to be honest with our own failings and faults, and to marvel in the amazing truth that God loves us with such a deep and powerful love.

The outcome or fruit of basking in such a truth is the growing desire to serve Him and please Him more.

Filed under: Gospel, Honesty | 2 Comments »

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