• 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 can’t we try it?

Posted on February 14, 2017 by wtdavid

Have you ever been in the hunt for a new computer, electric generator, or some other item needed for ministry or home setup?  As cross cultural workers, we are pretty good at ferreting out the best possible price. It’s just our way of trying to use the Lord’s money wisely.  However, you know there have been times when all that work was for naught. Sometimes, taking too much time to think about the best option, caused you to miss the sale price which ended yesterday!

Sometimes the same process occurs when we launch a new ministry project or tool.  Someone comes up with a great idea. We’re excited about what might happen through this project or tool.  We begin to brainstorm how to make it happen.  Then we move to ‘launch’ and that’s when the questions start to come.too-many-questions

Now, there is nothing wrong with questions and analysis.  Yet, I’ve noticed two things about ‘over-questioning’.  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.  Second, we underestimate the truth that we can learn an awful lot when things don’t go as we planned.  The Spirit of God has much to teach us from those moments of stepping out in ‘faith’ as well as those moments of stepping out in our own self sufficiency.

I don’t have an answer as to the best way to ‘work this process’, but I think it starts with a good deal of prayer, honesty with one another, and just plain old ‘give-it-a-try’ effort.

 

Filed under: Holy Spirit, Projects | 1 Comment »

You skaking?

Posted on February 10, 2017 by wtdavid

Just reading the news, as we know, can get one discouraged.  Here in Europe, the talk is of the exponential rise in migration, Brexit, and the internal strife in numerous countries.  There is a ‘shaking’ going on, and it can cause us to ‘shake’; to wonder what is really going on.

The daily grind of our lives as cross cultural workers can also cause us to despair, to ‘shake’, wondering what all this disruption has to do with life and ministry.

unshakeableI read this statement today which put order back into my heart and thinking: “This is why it is important to believe with an unshakeable trust that we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken.”

God builds the house (Psalm 127). God is building His Church (Matthew 16:18).  One day, God will right everything in this world (Revelation 21:4).  His kingdom is unshakeable (Hebrews 12:28).

At the end of another week, you may feel disrupted.  You may be ‘shaking in your boots’ because language learning is going badly or the person you’ve been spending time with in spiritual conversation dropped off the radar screen or family issues are causing sleep to be disturbed.

Then reach out in faith and repentance and grab hold of His hand.  Let Him overwhelm your ‘shaking’ heart with His assurance, with His ‘unshakableness’.

Not feeling like you can do that?  Then tell another, you’re having trouble even reaching out your hand.  Let them take your hand into His.

Filed under: Crossing cultures, Sovereignty, Trust | 4 Comments »

Community prayer snapshot

Posted on February 9, 2017 by wtdavid

I don’t know what you did today, but I spent the morning praying for Asia with the France team.

The room was divided into seven (7) stations.  At each station, we prayed for 15-20 minutes, in small groups, for the prayer points at that station.  We ‘moved around’ the room throughout the morning and prayed with different groups of different people.  At two stations, the group watched a short video from two of our teams in Asia.  Prayers were offered in French. Prayers were offered in English.  Prayers may have been offered in other languages.20170209_105127

One person commented as we were leaving, “I’m really glad I came this morning. It was so encouraging.”  Another said how good it was to be praying for and learning about another area of the world which he had never visited.

We would love h20170209_105153ear about your ‘community prayer snapshot’. Feel free to post those in the comment section.

Prayer leads us to “see the world as God does, to recognize more and more the depth of His grace towards us, and allow our hearts to ‘overflow’ with joy, with passion, with the unstoppable desire to grab that rope cord and join together in a movement.”

Filed under: Community, Movement, Prayer | 4 Comments »

Raise the sails!

Posted on February 8, 2017 by wtdavid

This past Monday, I met with two young leaders from a small mission that is “re-building” itself.  I say ‘young’ because the two guys could have been my sons.  They asked me questions, almost nonstop, for 90 minutes.  Good questions; the kind that make you sit back and hesitate before you try to answer.  They were eager to learn from another.  They were passionate.  They were focused.

When I say that their mission is ‘small’, it does not do them justice.  Their numbers may be small, but their dream is huge and draws you in to want to know more abpelicanpnewall4out how they believe God will accomplish it.  Their vision caused me to want to help them, not criticize their efforts and strategies.

As I thought about all this later, I realized the dream was compelling, but it was their passion, their hunger to engage in the accomplishment of this vision that spoke to me.  It was as if, we were all on a sailboat together and these guys were screaming: “Raise the sails!  Get ready to ‘rock and roll’ because the wind is up!”  What would you do?  You would run to grab hold of one of those rope cords and start heaving to raise those sails.

God has laid on our hearts a dream, a vision of multiplying disciples and communities of believers among the unreached.  However, we ‘lack’ the passion at times to give our all for this missional endeavor.  When the call is heard to ‘raise the sails’, some of us prefer criticism and push back, rather than heart-y engagement.

As we begin to see the world as God does, as we recognize more and more the depth of His grace towards us, our hearts will ‘overflow’ with joy, with passion, with the unstoppable desire to grab that rope cord and join together in a movement.

Filed under: Community, Passion, Vision | 4 Comments »

Prayer DOES take planning

Posted on February 7, 2017 by wtdavid

It’s good to hear how others respond to things we talk about in the WT Global community.  I was copied on this note the other day and thought it might ‘stir your minds and hearts’:

prayergroups“To my field mates,

 I am not sure if everyone has been reading some of the emails from David but they are great reminders to why we need to gather to pray as a field, team.

 One quote was from a book by David Bryant that I especially like,  “Years ago, David Bryant wrote the book, Concerts of Prayer, in which he argued for prayer communities and offered a ‘format’ for hosting a concert of prayer.  What I pulled from the book could be simply stated: **** we need to pray together, in community.”

 I remember back in the early days when we were studying language. We were a small team and lived close to each other. We took the whole day off from school and we gathered as a team to pray and worship.

 I know it is not as easy today with us all spread out and we have more ministry going on but the importance of prayer as a large team is still just as important. The Day of Prayer happens only a few times a year so I encourage you all to take some time out as a team to pray. It doesn’t need to be for the whole day but a time in “community” to lift your concert of prayer to God.

 I don’t know how that will look for you but here I will be gathering on the roof of our teammates’ house in the morning. Not sure who else will be able to make it. Will send out specifics when I know.  For all of us, be creative.

 As we serve together,

 S”

I note a couple of important elements in this note: (1) team prayer demonstrates our need for community, and allows us together to lift our voices to God; (2) no specific pattern or agenda is necessarily required; we can be flexible in our community prayer time; and (3) some planning is needed to provide a context, a framework for the community to gather and pray.

Prayer is one of our guiding principles.  Prayer resets our focus ‘to the North’, to the One who is our Father and our God.  As one writer put it: “It is not that we need to pray for the work, prayer is the work!”

 

 

Filed under: Community, Prayer | Leave a comment »

Learning the Gospel is a daily experience

Posted on February 3, 2017 by wtdavid

It’s the end of another week. As I look back over this past week, there are a number of questions I can use to evaluate or assess the fruitfulness of my week.daily-learning

One that doesn’t often come to mind, but should, is: how did the Gospel become more precious to me this week?  To put it another way, how did the Gospel help me see more of the depth of my sin and cause me to hold on more strongly to the honour and blessing God bestows on me as His child?

When you or I are in one of our ‘snits’ – simply defined as: “a fit of irritation; a sulk” – the last thing we are probably thinking about is unfathomable love of Christ for us.  What we are thinking about is how angry, frustrated or irritated we are with a teammate, an event or the seemingly bad things coming our way.

Yet, those very moments are the moments when God is most at work to show us our sin and push us back to Him where we would find all that we need.  Much of our work as cross cultural workers happens at a level which is invisible to the eye.  God is concerned above all with our heart, and our ‘stance’, probably more than He is with ‘our ministry’ (just read the book of Jonah again).

We talk a lot about the Gospel in World Team.  However, ‘talk’ is by no means the same thing as experience; nor the same thing as struggling with God to open our hearts to His Spirit’s searching work.

It is just hard sometimes to ‘believe’ that God truly loves us (1 John 3:1).  The truth is that He does, and we need the Spirit to drive that home to our hearts through experience, through His Word, through prayer, and through friends.

This was only one of many weeks to learn again of the unfathomable riches of Christ poured out to us even when we were in a snit.  I wonder how the Gospel will become more precious to me again next week?

Filed under: Gospel | Leave a comment »

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