• 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!

Reset 2025

Posted on December 11, 2024 by wtdavid

If we were to take a quick glance at what is happening in global missions, we would have to observe the growing presence of many more players, coming from everywhere and desiring to serve anywhere in the world.  

Rather than resources, initiatives, and missional ingenuity coming primarily from only one sector of the world, we can now identify numerous majority world and non-majority world agencies and organisations seeking to multiply disciples and communities of believers.

Lausanne 2024 organisers call this dynamic: a polycentric focus.

So, we would do well to push the ”reset’ button concerning our approach and engagement in what God is doing in the world.

Perhaps we might say that as a tangible demonstration of this polycentric focus, we (the WT community wherever we might be serving around the globe) pledge to serve as a “collective”.

In other words, we would commit ourselves to sharing more widely to learn of what God is doing in different places around the globe through multiple possible partners; to communicating more deeply the “we” of our community rather than the “me” so as to express the unity of Christ; to cooperating and collaborating more with one another and like-minded partners for greater expansion; and working together to provide all the resources needed around each initiative we would jointly hold as a collective.

That is our challenge for 2025! 

Filed under: Collaboration, Communication, Community, Polycentric focus | 4 Comments »

Starting Again

Posted on September 24, 2024 by wtdavid

It’s that time of year when you are either in the rush of a new academic and ministry year (Northern hemisphere) or moving to the end of your school & ministry year. Either way, it’s a time to step back and remember how God has shown grace to you as His child and how He has used you in His greater missional plan for this world.

Again and again, the Bible calls us to remember: “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonder of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”  (Psalm 77:11-12). The work of remembering has an active rather than a passive sense.  In the Hebrew Bible, the word is: zakar. It means to call to mind, to recall or to recount. It speaks of bringing something to the forefront of one’s mind. One writer put it this way: “to zakar is to employ your hands and feet and lips to engage in whatever action that remembrance requires.”

When we think of the good news that we share, it is so important to remember how this good news is good news for us. We need to “recount” it again to ourselves (and others) today and each day.

This new start or end to our year is also a time to refocus our hearts and minds on what is our calling, our dream as mission community: to multiply disciples and communities of believers among the lost.

It’s easy for us to lose sight of that larger dream and vision in the rush of the new year or at the end of that year. However, we need to remind one another of our calling as a community.

“Multiplying” is not something that occurs in a moment. It is an investment in others. It calls for time spent sharing, talking, training, and platforming others. However, the result is that multiplying disciples (and leaders) and communities of believers bears fruit exponentially. Exponentially in the sense that there are more and more and more workers engaging in God’s project to bring the message of Jesus to this world which is in such great need.

Both remembering and multiplying require energy and investment. But the fruit is well worth the energy and investment.

If interested, I recently wrote a book review of the book: Multiplying Leaders in Intercultural Contexts for the journal SEEDBED: https://www.seedbedjournal.com/. The book will give you some tools as to how to remember and invest in others.

Filed under: Gospel, Leader development, Multiplication | 4 Comments »

Gospel Growth — Take 2

Posted on July 8, 2024 by wtdavid

The Gospel speaks deeply to our hearts because it daily reminds us of the free grace, forgiveness and honour that is bestowed upon us.  However, the Gospel can often feel “distant” from our day to day existence. We need to see and learn its relevance to our lives and ministry.

The WT Ministry Framework puts it this way: “The Gospel is how any and all spiritual change happens in the lives of individuals, groups, and institutions of people. Therefore, it informs every ministry and is our most fundamental point of reference and principle in every action, plan, and strategy. This principle, before all others, guides us in the decisions we make, the solutions we embrace, the way we conduct our ministries and our relationships with others.”

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to let several WT workers share how the Gospel is changing them, transforming their hearts in different ways and in different contexts.  Here’s a another story from a WT worker’s journey:

“One special moment happened when I finally put my new understanding of God’s grace into a quote that I now often use, “The proportion to which you understand your depravity is the proportion to which you understand grace.” I had never deeply understood how only Jesus’ sacrifice was able to take away my sins and I could do nothing to please Him or have Him love me more.  It was already done. 

Another way to put it is: “Little depravity demands little grace.”  That was one of my most powerful discoveries: that I was totally depraved and without hope!  But the grace of Christ covers all my depravity/lacking/sin, etc.  I think I came to understand very clearly that without the blood of Christ to cover me I am hopelessly lost and condemned.  I think I felt I was okay most of the time because I was doing pretty good.  But I had to scrape every bit of my self-effort as having any value for God to accept me.  That was freedom.” 

A question to consider: What quote might best summarize your current understanding of grace and the Gospel?

Join us on the journey by sharing your story about the Gospel: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=E4rd-dxEeUymdtc3N8hETz_lXY4QRJ5ClTCIuVdURgFUQzFHUDI5U0w4SUFOQjY3QzQ3NUtXQjI0WS4u

Filed under: Gospel, Grace, Love of God | 6 Comments »

Gospel growth

Posted on June 20, 2024 by wtdavid

The Gospel speaks deeply to our hearts because it daily reminds us of the free grace, forgiveness and honour that is bestowed upon us.  However, the Gospel can often feel “distant” from our day to day existence. We need to see and learn its relevance to our lives and ministry.

The WT Ministry Framework puts it this way: “The Gospel is how any and all spiritual change happens in the lives of individuals, groups, and institutions of people. Therefore, it informs every ministry and is our most fundamental point of reference and principle in every action, plan, and strategy. This principle, before all others, guides us in the decisions we make, the solutions we embrace, the way we conduct our ministries and our relationships with others.”

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to let several WT workers share how the Gospel is changing them, transforming their hearts in different ways and in different contexts.  Here’s the first story of one WT worker’s journey:

“One day K. invited us to his grandmother’s birthday party. We would be the only non-family members there but that didn’t matter because we would be treated as one of them. I drove to the local grocery store, grabbed a gift for his grandmother and drove back to our apartment to pick up my wife and child. Then crash! To my horror, in my rushing, I crashed into a column in the parking garage. I was guilty. I was negligent in my driving. I ran upstairs and began to cry. I was ashamed. How was I going to show my face at the party? How was I going to tell my friend that I had damaged his beautiful, new car?

By now the party had started. I got the courage and called my friend. “I am so ashamed”, I started with, “I crashed your car.”  Beautifully and gracefully my friend refused to shame or guilt me. He told me that it was his car, and he would take care of it. He refused to let me pay, knowing that I did not have the means, and forgave me the debt I now owed him. And then he began to plead, “Just come to the party. We want you here.” I deserved shame, and he gave me honor. In that moment I was reminded of the gospel.”  

A question on which to reflect: What hope do we have in the Gospel that frees us to admit our wrongs?

Join us on the journey by sharing your story about the Gospel: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=E4rd-dxEeUymdtc3N8hETz_lXY4QRJ5ClTCIuVdURgFUQzFHUDI5U0w4SUFOQjY3QzQ3NUtXQjI0WS4u

Filed under: Godly living, Gospel, Holiness | 2 Comments »

Running “into”

Posted on April 30, 2024 by wtdavid

I recently read this short meditation in a study of Proverbs by Tim & Kathy Keller.

It was based on the verses from Proverbs 18:10-11: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination.”

Here is what the Kellers wrote: “But the wise person runs into the name of the Lord. In the Bible, God’s name is a way of speaking of his nature and attributes. To run into God’s name is to deliberately rehearse and tell yourself who he is. Jesus asked his fearful disciples in the storm, “Where is your faith?” He chastised them for failing to remember all that they had seen him do (Luke 8:25). If you panic, you are failing to remember (to “run into”) his power, his wisdom, his love for you. Self-control in any situation is the critical ability to both recognize and choose the important thing over the urgent thing. To honor, trust in, and please God is always the most important thing.  What are you facing right now that is difficult? What attribute of God might you be forgetting – and might help greatly if you remembered it?”

So, what are you facing right now that is difficult?  And what attribute of God might you be forgetting – and might help greatly if you remembered it?

Filed under: Attributes of God, Character, Grace | 2 Comments »

Three things

Posted on March 27, 2024 by wtdavid

A shout out to Craig for his reminder a week ago at the WT Spain retreat that the Gospel calls us to remember three theological truths: justification, redemption, and propitiation.

Justification. God chooses, based on the work of Jesus Christ, to declare us not guilty; to credit the righteousness of Christ to our account in exchange for Christ taking on our sins upon Himself.  To put it another way, He restores honour to the creature who had shamed the Creator.  And for the purpose of God being glorified for His work on behalf of His people.

Redemption.  As one writer put it: “The language of redemption is the language of purchase and more specifically of ransomed.”  Sin had enslaved us in spiritual bondage. Jesus went down into the marketplace of sin (see Hosea 3) and bought us back, securing for us liberty and freedom from the power of sin in our lives.

Propitiation.  “Propitiation presupposes the wrath and displeasure of God, and the purpose of propitiation is the removal of this displeasure.”  Jesus Christ became the perfect sacrifice needed, so that when God turns His face from all His creative work in the world and sets His gaze upon us, He sees Christ.

What Craig did in several short teaching sessions was to focus our hearts and minds on the depth of the Gospel.  He pushed us to consider the amazing grace of the Gospel. And to take time to plunge ourselves further into understanding the Gospel and considering the application of the Gospel to what happens in our lives and ministries.

Feeling more the weight of our sin in light of God’s holiness; the damage of the shame we bring to Him by our actions, heightens our appreciation of the wonder of His love toward us (Romans 1-8).

Thanks Craig!  But more importantly, thank you God for your steadfast love and mercy shown to thousands; and for that love and mercy which continues to reach across time from generation to generation to generation!

Filed under: Gospel, Grace, Theology | 2 Comments »

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