• 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!

Stand up with me

Posted on September 19, 2016 by wtdavid

A number of months ago, I saw this commercial online and felt it captured, in a humorous way, the struggle that many of us have in ministry calling others to join us in the vision God has placed before us.

As believers, we talk a lot about community, working together, teamwork, and learning how to carry out the ‘one another’ exhortations.  However, in practice we are at times reticent to join with others; to stand up with them.  The simple reason being that we believe we often have a better idea or better vision than the one being suggested. Instead of giving support to a vision, we prefer to evaluate and critique that direction.  Is this beginning to sound a little like a group that wandered through the desert for a number of years?

Now I’m not suggesting that we each drop the dream God may have given to each of us.  However, it is time for us as a World Team global community to stand up together and to lock arms together to fulfill the mission & vision God has given to us: Innovative teams multiplying disciples and communities of believers, bringing the Gospel within reach of lost people everywhere we go.

It’s time for us as a World Team global community to stand up together and share our resources with one another (human, prayer, intellectual and financial).  It’s time we stand up together and challenge young and old into cross cultural ministry with us.  The idea of World Team growing to 500 workers in the next five years will not happen if we don’t stand up together and mobilize together.  It’s time we stand up together and speak the Gospel to one another day in and day out so that our confidence would be in the Lord and not in ourselves.  It’s time we stand up together and live by what we say are our guiding principles and organizational ethos, and fulfill our central ministry focus.

Will you stand up together with me?

Filed under: Community, Gospel, Vision, WT Ministry Framework | 1 Comment »

Why I love World Team

Posted on September 16, 2015 by wtdavid

Last week, I started one of my posts by saying: “A number of us are complainers by nature.” It wasn’t meant as a criticism. Rather, it was an observation of how much I, we can have trouble celebrating with others when God does something good in our midst as a community.

i love WT teeshirtSo, I decided to start from a different starting point and simply affirm why I love World Team.

I love World Team because the Gospel is at the heart of who we are and what we do. The constant reminder, the constant driving us back as a community to the message of Christ’s unconditional, abundant and unending love of Christ, is what I need to hear again as I start each day. I’m grateful for so many fellow workers who remind me of this truth.

I love World Team because we work in teams. Teams are one of God’s primary means to grow us up in Him as ‘iron sharpens iron’. Teams are a model of the power of working together in sharing Christ with others, making disciples and establishing new communities of believers. We can do so much more together than we can by ourselves.

I love World Team because we are focused on that which will have long term impact: multiplying disciples and communities of believers. That investment is worth the effort expended in crossing a culture, working in serving alongside others from different cultures, and giving away the ministry to others.

I love World Team because of its rich history which still impacts the way we work and minister. One stream of World Team began through the collaboration of a Cuban evangelist and a North American Bible teacher. From there the ministry stretched out from that ‘Jerusalem’ to Samaria and the ends of the earth.

I love World Team because of the people I get to work with every day and who have invested heavily in my life …

 

Why do you love World Team?

Filed under: Community, Vision | 11 Comments »

Learning how to celebrate when we get it right

Posted on September 9, 2015 by wtdavid

A number of us are complainers by nature. Part of the reason may stem from the fact that some of us have a perfectionist streak. Part of the reason may also stem from the fact that we don’t really like it when others achieve what we were hoping to achieve; in other words, we don’t really like it when others ‘do better’ than us.

As a result, we can have trouble celebrating with others when God brings fruit to their ministry. We can struggle to rejoice with others‘ when they get it right’ by accomplishing what we say we are all about: multiplying disciples and communities of believers.celebrate

Recently, I have read about how the community of believers launched by the efforts of Bryan & Jacinda (WT Philippines) and their team continues on in outreach and growth. That news should warm our hearts as we recognize God’s power in the lives of new believers to give them the faith and the capacity to carry out the ministry.

I also recently read about Dan, Lisa, Mike and Becky’s (WT Cameroon) efforts to translate the Bible into the Oroko language. They are within sight of completing that task, thanks in part to the partnership between their team and a number of national workers. Not only are they on the throes of putting the Word of God in the language of another people group, but they have ‘multiplied themselves’ through the number of others with whom they are working.

I’m sure there are a number of other examples I could cite.

I don’t know what ‘celebration’ should look like. Maybe it’s just a word of thanks sent or a prayer offered back to God or a big shout of praise. Whatever form it takes, it should start in our hearts as we learn together as a WT community to rejoice with others at what the Lord is doing among us.

Filed under: Community, Joy, Multiplication, Vision | Leave a comment »

we have a dream

Posted on March 21, 2014 by wtdavid

Thanks to many of you who are ‘dreaming’ with me in the way I described in my last post.  Maybe it might be more appropriate to say:

we_have_a_dreamWe have a dream for World Team.

We have a dream that one day all World Team workers, all staff serving with World Team will be looking for ways to participate in teaming up potential workers with existing or new initiatives.

We have a dream that World Team workers will more quickly say: “We need to mobilize more workers into cross cultural church planting, so how can we work together on this,” rather than “WT Australia needs to do a better job of getting us workers”.

We have a dream for World Team.

We have a dream that World Team workers, the World Team community will invest deeply in potential workers: reaching out to them relationally, training them on the job, and developing them through delegation.

We have a dream that all of us as a World Team community will always be growing in our character in the Gospel, always learning new ideas and more helpful skills, and always reaching out to draw others into His mission.

We have a dream for World Team.  We hope and pray that many more will join us in sharing this dream.

Filed under: Collaboration, Mobilization, Vision | 2 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 »

One impact of knowing He was here first

Posted on February 25, 2014 by wtdavid

Last week, I posted about an article in the French evangelical journal, Théologie Evangélique.  At church (our local community of believers) this past Sunday, I leaned over to one of our elders and mentioned how much I appreciated the article.  He replied that he had another article that he wanted to share with me.  It was an article he felt would help expat workers better understand work and ministry in the French culture.   humility sign bis

The unique twist was that the article was about the life and ministry of Roger Williams. an English pastor and theologian who immigrated to the American colonies in the early 17th century.

It was history being used to aid in understanding the history or context of another culture.

I haven’t read the article, and my familiarity with the breadth of Williams thinking and teaching is limited.  However, I was beginning to see a theme running from David Bogue to Roger Williams to our work today.  Knowing that God was here first before my feet even touched the European soil will create above all a gospel  humility in my heart and thinking.

How can it do otherwise?  As I read through history and understand what God has been active at doing around the world through people like you and me, I recognize that this is not our mission, but His mission.  When I consider how easily I can misunderstand cues or insights because of my cultural blinders, I have to reach out to others for help, particularly brothers and sisters from the culture or people group where I have been called to serve.

We will never stop learning about God and what He is about.  Likewise, we will be regularly pushed to set aside our deep rooted pride to humbly join His cause in this world to seek after lost people.

Filed under: Humility, Vision | Leave a comment »

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