• 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!

Why is it so hard?

Posted on February 27, 2017 by wtdavid

Call it what you want: support raising, partnership development, or cross cultural worker funds.  For most of us, the task of ‘raising our own support’ was not, and is not, something that we looked forward to doing.  Yet, the Lord was faithful and here we are serving Him cross culturally.fund raising

Jehovah Jireth, the God who provides, met our need through those whose hearts He touched to engage in God’s mission.

However, in recent days, I have heard ‘older’ and ‘younger’ workers state how hard it is to do and continue to do partnership development.  I won’t use the word ‘complain’; maybe more like ‘tiresome-ness’.  Many are looking at other ways to self-fund or to reduce the amount of support they need to raise. Many are asking the question as to the viability of the partnership development process.

It’s not my intent to argue one way or the other.  However, let’s not deprive people around us of ‘the God ask’; that is, giving them an opportunity to get involved in what God is doing in His mission around the world through sharing their resources (see Philippians 4:15-17).

Let’s not deprive ourselves, either, of the opportunity to learn, and learn again that God does provide for our needs. He will provide through the partnership of others, through a work opportunity, or through a multitude of other ways. Yet, this is His work, not our work.

When we worry, complain, or grow just plain tired of raising up and developing partners in the ministry, we are in a sense conveying that cross cultural missions is about us.  We know that God called us into this work.  We know that we must raise up partners and funding.  However, we can trust He will meet our needs and teach us through this process.

Filed under: Partnership development, Trust | Leave a comment »

Had any good conversations today?

Posted on February 23, 2017 by wtdavid

A large portion of our work as cross cultural workers aconversationnd leaders consists in engaging people in conversation.  As I thought through my day today, I easily had over five significant conversations.

The question I am asking myself in light of all those conversations is: did I have any good conversations today?

When I say ‘good’, I’m asking myself if any of those ‘significant’ conversations built up another, brought hope back to someone, caused us as a ‘conversation’ group to move a project further along, allowed another ‘into’ my life  to hear my heart, or influenced a young believer in their walk with Christ.  That’s what I, we, should aspire to when ‘talking’ or conversing with others.

If we were honest, a number of our conversations are not ‘good’; not ‘good’ in the sense that there is no purpose or fruit from the time spent talking together. Sure, there are  times when our conversations are moments of jovial fun and laughter.  However, if the majority of our conversations consist of nothing more than lighthearted humor, we should probably ask more regularly: did I have any good conversations today?

Here are a few ideas to assess ourselves when we have a conversation in the next few days. Perhaps these might help us better see the import, the ‘good’ of our conversations:

  • If you were to summarize the conversation you just had in one sentence, what would you say?
  • How many questions did you ask, and how many questions did you answer?
  • If you were the other person in the conversation, how would you have felt when the conversation was over?

“… but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” 

Filed under: Assessment, Communication, Development | Leave a comment »

Pride runs deep

Posted on February 22, 2017 by wtdavid

How easy it is for us to forget that the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf is the reason why we are we part of the family of God.  Day by day, our works ‘shout out’ to others around us that we are part of the family because of all the ‘good’ that we do, because of the many hours of ministry in which we engage, and because we ‘gave up’ a better career to serve God cross culturally.

We’ve got it all wrong.  As one writer put: “It is painful to pride to discover that the Christian life is not rooted in what we can do, but in what we need done to us.”

proudPride.  It’s the belief that we can live and do ministry on our own.  Really.  We might not say that out loud.  We might use all the right spiritual phrases, but our pride will not let us go as far as to say: ‘we can do nothing apart from Him.”

It is the painful ‘tearing away’ from that self-centeredness in which we must engage each day.  However, even to do that, we need the working of Christ’s Spirit in our hearts (Psalm 139:23-24).

Pride runs deep. It will not be overcome in a day’s effort.  It is a marathon work that calls us to daily repentance and faith.  It is a journey where we need others to help us move away from self-centeredness towards other-centeredness.

Filed under: Accountability, Community, Gospel | Leave a comment »

People watching

Posted on February 21, 2017 by wtdavid

Have you ever caught yourself just ‘staring’ at people in a restaurant, on a flight, or at an open air market?  You know, engaging in ‘people watching’.  I can at times find myself looking at all the people around me and wondering how many of them know Christ.Crowded...

A sense of guilt can easily well up in our hearts as we think about the unfinished work of the Gospel and what we feel we ‘need’ to do.

Yes, our hearts need to be daily broken over the lost condition of those around us.  However, the ultimate work of the Gospel does not rest upon our efforts.  A friend used to say: “No one ever got saved by your testimony.”  His point was that God may use your testimony to bring another to Himself, but it is He that opens the hearts of men and women to Himself.

However, what if our initial response of brokenness gave way to a further response.  What if we chose to train another to pray along with us, to join with us in engaging lost people in spiritual conversation?  What if we saw the ‘mission’ God has given us to be a team effort rather than just an individual effort?

Last night, (let’s call him ‘P’) P was my waiter.  Each time, I come through this city, I usually run into P at this restaurant. P knows that I am a Christian. I met P through C, who is a local believer here.  P also knows M who is a worker in this city.  I haven’t necessarily ‘trained’ C and M, but my spiritual horizons expand when I realize that God is using many people to bring Christ’s hope to the one of those  among the lost.

I just wonder about the fruit that might come from training up others into this missional work of God, rather than ‘carrying’ it by ourselves.

Filed under: Gospel, Sharing the Gospel story, Teams | Leave a comment »

Another take at unpacking the idea of ‘over-questioning’

Posted on February 17, 2017 by wtdavid

I find so much good in the ‘sharing of ideas’; in that part of community where we can help each other ‘grow up in Christ’ as we ‘sharpen one another’ through robust dialogue.  Carolynfun-moving raised a question which led to some further ‘unpacking’ of an idea.

Then another person wrote back with what I felt were very insightful comments. In fact, I responded to this person by saying: “I think you did a way better job of expressing what I was trying to say in my original post.”

Here’s what that person in the World Team Global community wrote: “I appreciated Carolyn’s question, because it reminded me of my experiences as a critical/analytical thinker. Many people took my questions or critical comments, when all I felt I was doing was examining the issue. This happened more when I wrote than in face to face exchanges.  For me, there was no motivation to go after someone, no hidden agenda. The motivation was a questioning mind which wants see all possibilities, hindrances, watch for missing information etc. But this sometimes came across to those with other thinking styles as plain critical, or too perfectionist.

On the other hand, some people would realize what I was doing, and encourage others to listen, to hear me out. But when it comes to asking questions, there are ways to phrase and ask questions in an appropriate way. How we talk can sound like a know it all, arrogant and disrespectful.

One thing I know from myself, is that critical thinkers can come across as having all the questions and no solutions. I have had to learn to know the difference between tearing down and building up. Paul says knowledge puffs up; love builds up. That is the bottom line.”

What stood out to me, what ‘sharpened’ my thinking were three things.  First, the good reminder, said in another way, that asking lots of questions is not wrong.  Second, other people need to get involved in helping a group to receive well the input via questions of one member of the group. It’s a community project.  Finally, growth in self-awareness led this writer to ‘adapt’, to contextualize his questioning mind, in light of biblical principles to the need, growth and development of others.  Did he stop asking questions?  I don’t think so, but he obviously grew in knowing how to exercise
his ‘gift’ for the benefit of the group.

Filed under: Community, Development | 2 Comments »

Unpacking the idea of ‘over-questioning’

Posted on February 15, 2017 by wtdavid

If you didn’t see it, Carolyn commented on yesterday’s blog post by writing: “David, I enjoyed this thought. Can you “unpack” or expand on this idea: “First, at times ‘over-questioning’ is a smokescreen for our criticism, not our constructive, critical help. We simply want to prove that we are right about the theological or missiological standing behind our comments, rather than help the brother or sister move a new idea forward.”unpackinggraphic

So here goes.  ‘Over-questioning’ is when we ask lots of questions where the primary focus is to ‘take apart others’ ideas’.  Our objective is not first to come alongside and assist the other to ‘improve’ the idea by our questions.

If we push back on the someone’s implied criticisms through their questions, we often get a response such as: “I’m just asking questions. I think there are some missiological and theological issues at stake here.”

All those questions are just a ‘smokescreen’ as to our real intent in the discussion.  There is nothing wrong with asking lots of questions.  However, the Gospel searches out the motivation behind our questioning; seeking to separate out self-centeredness from other-centeredness.

Other-centeredness causes us to have a different view of others and their ideas.  Our questions become the means by which we can ‘develop others’.  And sometimes, ‘development’ means we just need to let people try and see what the Lord might do through their ideas.

I wonder what the Lord, and the disciples, thought when Peter asked to step out of that boat.

Filed under: Development, Gospel, Other centeredness | Leave a comment »

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