• 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!

If I could dream again

Posted on April 18, 2017 by wtdavid

Have you ever found yourself ‘dreaming’ of how things might go better if even small things changed?  Have you ever ‘dreamed’ about the potential that would be released in the ministry and relationship spheres of a team if solutions were found for certain issues that beleaguered them?

If I could dream, if I could envision how we as a global community of World Team would be different four months from now, I would see a community of workers who choose to think well of others and hear them out.kids-listening

Whether it is a leader-leader, leader-worker, or worker-worker relationship, I am often surprised by how little ‘weight’ we give to the thoughts, ideas and direction of others.  In the case of leaders, I have noticed an unspoken assumption that whenever a leader ‘speaks’ (in writing or in person), their input can be discounted because the thinking is that he/she must not have the best in mind for those he/she leads.  In the case of teammates, we may talk much about community, but in the end ‘we will do what we have to do’ and will choose to ignore the input of others in our community to do what we (personally) think is best.

Yes, we can disagree with others with whom we work.  However, are we actually ‘mining’ the feedback, direction or ideas we receive for all it can teach us?  Is our style of followership causing those who lead us to ‘groan’ rather than ‘be joyful’ and thus depriving ourselves of their influence in our lives?

It’s a hard sentence to get out, but it might help us choose to think well of others and hear them out: “So tell me more about what you mean when you said …”

If I could dream, if I could envision how we as a global community of World Team would be different four months from now, I would see a community of workers who choose to think well of others and hear them out.

Filed under: Feedback, Leadership, Listening, Teams | 11 Comments »

The art of sacrifice in a region (Americas)

Posted on November 18, 2014 by wtdavid

The Mission¹⁴: Vision Forward Americas conference kicked off our year of Area conferences in 2014.  The conference focused on examining elements that promoted or encouraged church multiplication.  Topics such as: “Seeing with Pilgrim Eyes”; Engaging the Excluded Middle”; and “Thinking with the End in Mind” were parts of the daily discussions.  Large group and small group interaction provided opportunities to dig deeper into each topic and consider specific applications to current ministries.small group prayer

As I wrote in the previous post, “I shared a number of challenges with each region or Area.  The purpose was to affirm and celebrate what God has done through us over the past few years as well as to challenge Area members to “excel still more” in their work and ministry for Jesus.”

During the Americas conference, I shared the following challenges.

First challenge: restructure. WT Americas is historically one of our longest standing Areas.  It is where one part of our mission found its start.  God has blessed through the number of people who have come to Christ and the communities and church associations that have arisen as a result of our WT Americas workers.  However, the number of WT sent workers has diminished over the years and we find ourselves in situations where there is only one couple or unit in a location.  We need to ‘restructure’ WT Americas in its ministry oversight so as to better serve our current workers and create opportunities for new workers, wherever they might come from.

Second challenge: partner to send.  The Latin America church is now sending workers to serve Christ around the world.  We need to initiate dialogue with one or more like minded agencies as to how we can come alongside them and serve them in seeing more workers from the Global South to be sent into cross cultural ministry.

Third challenge: develop and release to younger people.  WT Americas has a large number of highly experienced workers with significant longevity in ministry.  This wealth of experience should be shared with the younger generation.  Becoming mentors and coaches for the younger generation will open up new avenues of service for our highly experienced workers.  It will also mean that we will be quicker to release these younger workers into ministry and leadership so that they can begin to develop and grow in those ministry functions.

I share these challenges to the WT Americas workers with all of us both as a reminder and as a motivation to pray for one another as we seek to learn the further change and growth to which God is calling us.

 small group prayer

Filed under: Development, Leadership, Vision Forward 2014 | Leave a comment »

Fostering a reproducible process

Posted on June 24, 2014 by wtdavid

reproducible processI recently finished reading, Paul’s Missionary Methods, edited by Plummer & Terry.  It’s a centennial celebration of Roland Allen’s work and its ongoing impact to missional thinking today.

Let me quote a lengthy section from a chapter on the apostle Paul and leadership development:

“The missionary wrongly believes that the time to turn over the church to indigenous leaders – that is, after they have been sufficiently trained – will be obvious to all, but “those who are seeking to gain authority never agree to wait until those who hold it think they are sufficiently prepared.”  Filled with the Holy Spirit, the new believers are thus “not so incapable as we [missionaries] suppose.”

Toward this end, Allen argues that the apostle Paul generally “preached in a place for five or six months and then left behind him a church, not indeed free from the need of guidance, but capable of growth and expansion.”  Paul accomplished this task by “teaching the simplest elements in the simplest form to the many,” thereby fostering a reproducible process that facilitated rather than hindered planting new churches.  The apostle planted and taught the young church, moved on quickly to his next ministry destination and made himself available to minister as needed to the planted church via his writings or his emissaries.  The leaders he left behind were not necessarily highly educated; they were simply Holy Spirit-filled men.”

Two things immediately stood out to me in this section, and which called for further reflection.  First, Allen contends that Paul’s focus was not on efforts to ‘highly train’ others, but to ‘train so that others could train others who could train others’.  The apostle was looking to foster a reproducible process; training in such a way that it was more easily transferable.  Second, I recognized how often I can underestimate the capabilities of others because I forget that they, like me, have the Spirit living and working in them.

To apply both of those insights would mean working to ‘release’ people more quickly into ministry and leadership, entrusting their ongoing growth to the Father.

 

Filed under: Leadership, Multiplication | 8 Comments »

i have a dream

Posted on March 19, 2014 by wtdavid

Many of us are familiar with Martin Luther King’s famous speech, “I have a dream” where Dr. King cast a vision for what freedom and justice might look like in one country of the world.  By using a series of word pictures, he built a desire in people’s hearts for such an internal and societal change.I-Have-a-Dream-520x336.png bis

I have a dream for World Team.

I have a dream that one day all workers, all staff serving with World Team will speak of others with respect, honesty and appreciation; that people from World Team will choose to video Skype rather than send an e-mail to say things that may be hard or difficult to say.  I have a dream that World Team workers, World Team staff will send more tangible gifts of appreciation than just an occasional ‘thank you’ at the end of a note.

I have a dream that speaks to cultural issues; organizational culture issues.

I have a dream for World Team.

I have a dream that World Team workers and staff will value both leaders and followers.  I have a dream that each of us will choose to hear and follow leaders so that they ‘may do it with joy’ (Hebrews 13).  I have a dream that leaders will listen well to followers (James 1), reflecting deeply on and integrating the insights they share.

I have a dream for World Team.  I hope and pray that you share that dream with me.

Filed under: Interdependence, Leadership, Vision | 2 Comments »

Raising and releasing for me

Posted on July 17, 2013 by wtdavid

Recently, I asked a number of WT workers if they could share in less than three minutes how our core values are being worked out in their personal, team and ministry lives.  Last time you heard from Dan about Interdependence.

This week, Bryan, one of our workers in Asia, shares how he sees the core value of raising and releasing leaders worked out in his context.

 

Filed under: Core Values, Development, Leadership | Leave a comment »

Raising and releasing

Posted on July 15, 2013 by wtdavid

In a post last week, I described “developing” as providing opportunities and situations for others to grow and develop in their gifts and abilities; and that through those opportunities people would learn to grow themselves and help others do the same.leadership_kids_460x314

A working group I created to look at core values put it this way: “Christ was the first to develop and release leaders into the work of proclaiming His salvation to the ends of the earth, and the exhortation of Christ was that we would imitate His work in walking alongside people, developing them to release them to do the same, for the sake of His name and salvation to all people. WT seeks to honor God by doing this both through church planting among the nations as well as among our own community (Matthew 28:19-20).”

Two insights caught my attention. First, we are called to imitate His work, but it is ultimately Jesus who carries out the development process in the life of a disciple and of a leader. Our role is more of “raising” a disciple or leader by consistently pointing them back to Jesus, to learn from Him.

Second, in everything we do, in our ministry and in our life in the community, God desires that we create a context whereby others can grow in their commitment to Christ as a disciple or as a leader. We honor God by turning over, by releasing His ministry into the hands of others who we pray will do the same.

Filed under: Core Values, Development, Leadership | 4 Comments »

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