• 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!

Collaboration: take two

Posted on April 20, 2016 by wtdavid

‘Organizational culture’ refers to what should define our relationships with one another. Organizational culture tells us in what kind of atmosphere we will work.collaborative-meeting-clipart-1

Collaboration among members and teams within the World Team global community should be a natural reflex. That heart stance of serving together should then lead us to collaborate well with brothers and sisters outside of the World Team context.

I saw a good example of this recently among one of our teams in Africa. Wanting to further process where God might be leading them to minister next in Africa, they invited a national director of the church association that they serve under to share in their discussions. In the course of these discussions, it became evident that the Lord was laying on everyone’s hearts the same locations to consider.

Over lunch, one of our leaders said to the national director: “Would you be interested in joining together to do initial research on one of these locations that God has laid on our hearts?”

Collaboration is not about you joining ‘our’ project or us joining ‘your’ project, but putting our collective resources at the disposal of one another to work together on our (all parties included) project.

I think it took a lot of humility to ask that question of the national director as it was an admission that we need each other and that we can’t go it alone.

I also think it took some guts to ask that question because it changed our ministry work context to one that would be multicultural with all the inherent difficulties and potential misunderstandings. Yet the ultimate outcome will be a much better representation of what missions will be like in the future.

Filed under: Collaboration, Mission | Leave a comment »

A season of renewal

Posted on November 13, 2015 by wtdavid

Some of us have already begun talking about the Christmas season!  That season of the year when our hearts turn to thinking in particular about the birth of our Lord and Savior; a time when individually and collectively as a community of believers we reflect on the deep meaning of the incarnation.renewal

However, that ‘time of renewal’ should not be limited to just one season of the year, and particularly for us a movement of workers committed to seeing disciples and new communities of believers raised up and multiplied.

Read the quote below from Tim K and his book, Center Church, and simply replace the word ‘church’ by World Team.  Then reflect on what it might mean for us as an agency, as a movement of committed workers to Christ:

“A practical key to maintaining an organized organism is experiencing a season of renewal in the church or organization that parallels the way an individual person is spiritually renewed.  There must be times for what the Bible calls “covenant renewal.” Israel was brought into its original covenant relationship with God at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19-20, and the nation was formed as God’s people and called to live in a particular way in the world.  Whenever Israel faced a major new chapter in their journey, however, they were led through a season of covenant renewal – in Joshua 24, before they entered the promised land; in 1 Samuel12, before they received a king; and in Nehemiah 8-9, as they returned from the Babylonian exile.  These times of covenant renewal always had three parts: (1) the people returned to biblical texts in order to remember the things God had called them to do and be; (2) they looked forward to the next chapter; to the new challenges facing them; and (3) they rededicated their lives and resources to God for the next stage of the journey.  This renewal must happened frequently in any church for it to remain an organized organism.  It also prepares the church to be an active and generous participant in the movement dynamics in its city.”

Filed under: Mission, Renewal | 2 Comments »

Having impact

Posted on September 4, 2015 by wtdavid

While in Australia, I heard a speaker share the following thought: “People want to feel like they are contributing to something. It may not change big things, but they are having impact.”impact bis

My first thought was to think of the people that we work with or the active participants of various community of believers with which we are involved. People want to be part of something. They want to feel that their ‘small part’ is somehow contributing to a larger whole that brings ultimate change. Maybe this is why so many seek community in our days? However, as with a previous post, I wonder if we as workers don’t often stifle that involvement or hinder the impact that others long to have by the simple fact of our doing most of the ministry ourselves.

Then my thoughts turned to us as workers and I realized that we, like anyone else, long to have impact in our world. However, maybe we believe that impact will only come as we ‘do’ the bulk of ministry activity? Maybe we struggle to share, delegate or give away ministry to others because it feels like we will lose impact? Maybe we can’t see how our impact might actually be multiplied as we share it with others?

One step in multiplying impact by ‘sharing work’ with others might be by simply listening to the input and counsel of others. In 2 Kings 5, we read about the Syrian commander Naaman who sought healing for his leprosy. It’s a story that many of us know quite well. However, if you take away the involvement or intervention of the young servant girl working for Naaman’s wife and the servants who traveled with Naaman, the story would take a completely different turn. Their words had incredible impact in the life of Naaman. Despite their low status, he chose to listen to them and the outcome is Naaman’s redemption.

“People want to feel like they are contributing to something. It may not change big things, but they are having impact.”

Filed under: Delegation, Influence, Mission | 2 Comments »

Call it what you want

Posted on August 27, 2015 by wtdavid

Rebecca and I recently participated in the Gen12 conference in Australia. The conference was built around the theme of: “Building a culture of discipleship”. The plenary sessions and workshops sought to demonstrate that discipleship was the core task of the believer.discipleship

A quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer set the tone for the day: “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”

What I found interesting was, that in the midst of this whole day on discipleship, people always got around to talking about planting local communities of believers. A ‘lone ranger’ disciple is an oxymoron. In participants’ minds, it is impossible for discipleship not to bear fruit in the establishment of more and more local churches.

Within our agency and numerous other agencies, I have often heard that people have difficulty relating to the term: ‘church planting’; that this vocabulary is somewhat outdated. Yet, during a whole day with students, faculty and local pastors talking about discipleship, ‘church planting’ or the growth and establishment of more communities of believers, kept coming up in conversation.

Perhaps the precise words may not be best suited to communicating who we are and what we do. However, what we are about is sharing the narrative of Jesus with others, seeing them put their trust in Him as their only hope, being discipled to grow up in Him, and coming together with other believers to offer up praise to their Lord and Savior. This is who we are.

We may work through a variety of means to share that message, disciple people and bring them into community, but our ultimate desire is for disciples to be and to live in community.

However you want to say it, multiplying disciples and communities of believers is our purpose; it is our vision.

Filed under: Church planting, Discipleship, Mission | 2 Comments »

A missional DNA

Posted on August 6, 2015 by wtdavid

For an upcoming conference, I have been asked to talk about ‘how to make mission part of a disciple’s DNA’. I have been tossing around a number of practical ideas over the past week or so. However, to be honest, at a given moment, I got stuck. I got stuck on the ‘how to’ part.DNA

The answers to the ‘how to’ question certainly help another believer know what mission might be about. However, it doesn’t ultimately point us to who sends us forth in mission, or who is the source or drive of our going.

To be honest, it’s that assurance, deep in one’s heart, that one has been sent and that the God of the universe goes with him/her that will make mission part of any disciple’s life.

Looking back at Matthew 28:18-20, one saint from long ago wrote: “Never, certainly, would the Apostles have had sufficient confidence to undertake so arduous an office, if they had not known that the Protector sitteth in heaven, and that the highest authority is given to him; for without such a support it would have been impossible for them to make any progress.”

If the Gospel brings us into fellowship and relationship with Jesus, then the Gospel would also push us out to intentionally move towards others because as Jesus said: ‘just as the Father has sent Me, so I send you’ (John 20:21).

Your thoughts?

Filed under: Gospel, Mission | 8 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 »

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