• 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!

Ministry practice 2.4

Posted on October 25, 2011 by wtdavid

What is that we actually do as cross cultural workers? The CPM Roadmap (like the WT Continuum) makes an attempt at ‘painting a picture’ to describe the ministry in which we are engaged. It is a good model, a good framework from which to work. Could we look at cross cultural ministry from another perspective or outlook in order to help better grasp the task or the journey that we are on?

The first step is to engage others in spiritual conversations. The second step is to encourage others to read God’s story contained in the Bible. The third step is to journey with people in their discovery of God. We live in a world that is hurtling forward at light speed. Every day, businesses as well as we as people are confronted with a multitude of decisions that must be made seemingly within microseconds. However, the shifting of the spiritual framework that directs our lives will not happen in a nanosecond, a microsecond or even a few minutes. That is why we must journey with people.

People are not ‘projects’ for our cross cultural work. People are relational beings, created in the image of God, but ostracized from Him by the disruption of sin. Our work is to call people back to relationship with the Creator God. Relationships are a building process; they are a journey that has its highs and lows.

This is why prayer is so critical to the journey. In prayer, we recognize that people are set on this journey, and ultimately only discover God because He works to open their hearts.

So what do we do? We pray boldly asking God to open people’s eyes to discover Him. We depend on the Spirit for the patience to journey with others well, not dragging them to God, but allowing them to discover God for themselves. We trust God’s Spirit to lead many to see the outcome of that journey to be the discovery of the God of grace and of His unfailing love.

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

Ministry practice 1.8

Posted on October 13, 2011 by wtdavid

What is that we actually do as cross cultural workers?  The CPM Roadmap (like the WT Continuum) makes an attempt at ‘painting a picture’ to describe the ministry in which we are engaged.  It is a good model, a good framework from which to work.

Could we look at cross cultural ministry from another perspective or outlook in order to help better grasp the task or the journey that we are on?

The first step is to engage others in spiritual conversations.  The second step we take in cross cultural life and ministry is to encourage others to read God’s story contained in the Bible. In order to point people to God, we need to bring them in contact with this living God.  So we need to invite people to hear or to read His story.

There are many ways this can be done.  This can be done individually by giving a person a copy of God’s story.  Or, we can ask if they would like us to read the story with them (see the example of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in this regard).  Or we can give them a media version of God’s story which would allow them to listen multiple times to the same stories. The key is to invite people to interact with and discover for themselves the God of the biblical story.

We recently had dinner with a couple who have moved here from another part of the world.  They were sharing their spiritual journeys and their ongoing concern for other family members who did not have a relationship with God.  Their daughter recently moved to where some extended family members live.  Each week, after her university studies, she would swing by to visit.  At one point, the conversation was drawn to the Bible.  She asked if her grandmother had read the Bible, to which the response was: “no”.  She immediately offered to read the Bible with her.  The invitation was accepted, and a number of weeks later, her grandmother walked into the arms of her new found Savior.

We engage people in spiritual conversation.  We invite them to discover for themselves God’s story.

What else do we do?   We pray because we need God to open the conversation.  We depend on the Spirit for the courage to offer, to invite others to read His story.  We trust that God’s Spirit will open blind eyes to see and to hear the words of redemption in that great, great story.

 

Filed under: Church planting, Communication, Listening, Sharing the Gospel story | 2 Comments »

Ministry practice 1.2

Posted on October 11, 2011 by wtdavid

What is that we actually do as cross cultural workers?  The CPM Roadmap (like the WT Continuum) makes an attempt at ‘painting a picture’ to describe the ministry in which we are engaged.  It is a good model, a good
framework from which to work.

Could we look at cross cultural ministry from another perspective or outlook in order to help better grasp the task or the journey that we are on?

The first step we take in cross cultural life and ministry is to engage others in spiritual conversations. Spiritual conversations are not an attempt to contort everything that we are talking about around to some Scripture verse or biblical principle.  Spiritual conversations are engaging others in talking about what forms the framework for the way they see the world and live.  It is a dialogue between people where we seek, as the opportunities arise, to share the gospel framework in such a way that it arouses interest and reflection.

The Bible describes our role in one way as that of being an “ambassador”.

It is not an easy task.  John Wesley describes his struggles in a journal entry in 1738: “went several times the following days, with a design to speak to the sailors, but could not. I mean, I was quite averse [willing, wanting to] to speaking; I could not see how to make an occasion, and it seemed quite absurd to speak without. Is not this what men commonly mean by, “I could not speak”? And is this a sufficient cause of silence, or no? Is it a prohibition from the Good Spirit? or a temptation from nature, or the evil one?”

So, what do we do?  Pray.  We need to ask Him to open up opportunities for spiritual conversations.  Depend on the Spirit.  The Spirit must prepare and open a person’s heart for them to be responsive to any conversation. We must ask Him to move in people’s lives.  Timing.  We cannot force a conversation.  Divine opportunities are just that, divine opportunities.  We seek for open doors, and wait for God to open those doors up to us.

 

 

Filed under: Communication, Crossing cultures, Listening, Prayer, Sharing the Gospel story | 6 Comments »

Lessons Learned❶

Posted on October 29, 2010 by wtdavid

I have to be honest and say that I was totally exhausted when I returned home after the Lausanne congress (Oct 16-25).  It will probably take me a number of days to process all that I heard, felt, experienced and took in during the 10 days that I was there.  But let me start to share some of my “take-aways”.

Number❶ take-away: Preach, proclaim, and share the Gospel fearlessly.  This seems so obvious.  Yet in a global context where pluralism (as well as other ‘isms’) contends that there cannot be any ultimate transcendent truth, we can find ourselves being lulled into a more apprehensive and hesitant approach to evangelism.

During my week in Cape Town, I heard from brothers and sisters from around the world whose methodology of church planting was characterized by the simple yet fearless and abundant sharing of the Gospel with others; sometimes at the cost of suffering to themselves and their families. 

A beginning response to this take-away would not be found in feeling “burdened” to share with others, so that our witness flowed out of obligation.  It would be found by sending our roots deeper into the One who is truth, Jesus Christ.  The joy that flows from knowing His great love for us (Ephesians 1) would then become our chief motivation.

Now here’s the hard question: How will you respond to preach, proclaim and share the Gospel fearlessly?

Filed under: Cape Town 2010, Gospel, Sharing the Gospel story | 1 Comment »

Humble Listening

Posted on October 11, 2010 by wtdavid

“For the Christian, dialogue is a fundamental aspect of bearing witness to the truth of Christ.  Where there is genuine longing for the other to come to ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor. 4:6), there will always be a posture of humbling listening.  For it is the desire to communicate that motivates us also to listen well.  Listening to people involves taking their beliefs, fears and aspirations with utmost seriousness, even being prepared to be disturbed and challenged by them ourselves.  All witness, and thus all true dialogue, is a risky undertaking.  Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also (12:26). It is not the missionary who carries Jesus to others; on the contrary, it is the crucified and risen Jesus who leads us in our witness into places where we fear to venture.”

This quote comes from a book I’ve been working my way through: The Message of Mission, by Howard Peskett and Vinoth Ramachandra.  I recognize that it speaks of our own witness to others of the truth of God, and how in that process we as well can grow from that “dialogue”.

But these words also spoke to my heart as I consider my ongoing preparation for Cape Town 2010.  I think that they encapsulate what should be my main prayer, and the one I would ask you to pray for me: that I would have a posture of “humble listening”; that I would listen well to others and discern what God is saying to me and to us as a mission community through these brothers and sisters in Christ from so many different nations and people groups. 

Maybe this should be our prayer together over the coming days: that we would humbly listen to those around us where we serve, and learn what God would have to say to us through them.

Filed under: Communication, Humility, Sharing the Gospel story | 1 Comment »

How Much Do You Know?

Posted on October 4, 2010 by wtdavid

I read the following piece in The Economist this week, and it caused me to reflect about an aspect of lifelong learning:

“A survey from the Pew Research Centre that tested Americans’ knowledge of world religions found that atheists and agnostics were better informed about religious teachings and religious leaders than were Protestants and Catholics.  Evangelicals scored better on questions solely related to Christianity and the Bible.”

I realize that this study was limited to the American population, and that I don’t have statistics for Canadians, Australians or people from other countries.  Nevertheless, the research does seem to beg the question as to whether Evangelicals in general have a rather limited understanding of what others believe. 

Our calling as cross cultural workers necessitates that we have a deep understanding of what others believe, what is their worldview, in order to “contextualize” the message of the Gospel and “know how we should respond to each person.” (Colossians 4:6)  However, that is not a one off event, but requires a lifelong learning stance to continue to grow in our knowledge of what others believe, how they think and what they value.

With our world becoming more and more globalized, the above article caused me to wonder if my familiarity with other religions might be similarly limited.  And that maybe I needed to set a new learning outcome.

Engaging people from other faiths is one of the issues that will be raised at Cape Town 2010.  You might want to read one of the Advance papers entitled: “Bearing Witness to the Love of Christ with People of Other Faiths.”  You can find this and other papers at: http://conversation.lausanne.org/en.

Filed under: Lifelong learning, Sharing the Gospel story | 1 Comment »

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