• 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!

Foundations are forever

Posted on January 17, 2017 by wtdavid

“Foundations are forever”.  I don’t remember who is the author of that important phrase, but I do remember that I first heard it in ‘CP 201’ from Paufoundationsl T.  “Foundations are forever” means that the principles we first ‘pour into’ our work of discipleship and church planting cannot be easily changed at a later point.

If we, as cross cultural workers, choose to take on the bulk of responsibility for the ministry from the very start, then national believers who are part of ‘our’ church will show little interest or desire for taking on the work and ministry. “Foundations are forever”.

If we, as cross cultural workers, simply tell our new believers (by our words and actions) what church should look like, we may unconsciously create a ‘church’ that is culturally irrelevant.  “Foundations are forever”.

If our speech is filled with the Gospel, but we create a church culture where it’s all about doing for the Lord, then local believers may have little joy in life from the weight of legalism.  “Foundations are forever”.

One of the funny things I have learned over the course of the last number of years is that the principle applies as well to my life as a cross cultural worker.  “Foundations are forever”. There are foundations that have been laid in my life that are not the foundations the Lord desires for my life.  Foundations that need to be broken up and re-poured.

There is a lot of talk in our mission about the Gospel.  I have greatly profited in my own life from daily ‘speaking the Gospel’ to my own heart. However, if we were honest, the default mode, the true foundation in times of deep community and accountability is more of selfishness than Christ.

When we are asked to do something for another, we may choose to ‘rebel’ and criticize, rather than respond and learn.  When someone asks a critical question of our work or ministry, we may choose to defend ourselves rather than see it as a ‘searchlight’ moment (Psalm 139).  When someone pulls us aside after a team meeting and asks what the ‘energy’ and anger was they felt, we may choose to ignore a systemic problem and not allow our brother or sister to help us grow. “Foundations are forever”.

It’s time for lunch and there’s lots to discuss after this class. Tomorrow we will talk about what we might do to change faulty foundations.

Filed under: Church planting, Structure, Teams, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Any Project Needs Some Structure

Posted on April 10, 2015 by wtdavid

While recently sharing with leaders in one of our ministry locations, I invited them to quickly read one of two texts: Joshua 1-3 or Nehemiah 1-2.  I then asked them to discuss a series of questions, one of those being: What was the leader’s priority in this situation?  And how did they work that priority?

The discussion that ensued showed the relevance of these texts to our ministry today as cross cultural workers.structure

Among the many thoughts that were shared was the need to bring some structure, organization or order to the overwhelming project that these leaders and their teams faced. Now I don’t imagine that Nehemiah or Joshua edited some Excel spreadsheets or Microsoft Project documents to better direct the work ahead of them.  However, delegated work and shared ministry occur best in a context where there is a focus on the goal to which the team is directed.

That ‘order’ or loose knit structure seems to be part of the church we read about in such texts as Ephesians 4: “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Filed under: Setting goals, Structure | 4 Comments »

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