• 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!

The myth of being irreplacable

Posted on January 16, 2013 by wtdavid

mythbusters1

Bob Vajko, in an article in the recent edition of EMQ, writes that one of the first mistakes a church planter can make is “to wrongly develop dependency in the church we are planting.”  Most often, we err by doing so much in the early start up that community members come to believe that we are the only ones capable of doing the ministry.

By this, we create the myth of being irreplaceable.

It is not our intention at the outset to create this myth. God called us to be part of a community of workers that “establish and go” rather than “establish and stay”.  However, as time goes on, our investment in the work increases and it becomes more difficult to move on or to let go of the ministry and give it into others’ hands.

A few ‘myth-busters’ would serve us well at this point:

Others are capable of doing the ministry.  It’s such an obvious fact, but we can tend to measure capability by a standard that even the best disciple of Jesus would struggle with.  Having a developmental mindset or attitude towards others will encourage us to put others more quickly into ministry situations in order to allow them to ‘try out’ the ministry in a context of mentoring and coaching.

We ourselves entered into ministry in the same way.  None of us jumped from Sunday School into full-time church planting like some high school basketball players have done in jumping to the NBA professional league.  We were nurtured, discipled and trained by others and we grew into the ministry. Why should we expect it to be any different for those who become part of the communities of believers we are part of starting?  However, they need opportunities to serve and we need to give those opportunities to them from the very start.

People often do fine without us.  When the church planter is not present, it’s amazing how a community pulls together and does church.  As long as the church planter is present, some will never rise to the occasion.  However, should an opportunity present itself, those disciples who have been trained will assume their places of ministry.

We are as much a part of the community of believers that we are establishing as any other member.  Our role, though, needs to be from the very start one which develops, trains and releases others quickly into ministry and service.

 

Filed under: Church planting, Delegation, Training | Leave a comment »

What is it going to mean?

Posted on January 11, 2013 by wtdavid

The 1plus1 challenge has been getting a fair amount of “air time” the last few days.  I would encourage you to read the comment section from the past two posts where you will find some good discussion, sharing and interaction.

The 1plus1 challenge is a call to intentionally disciple one person into a relationship with Christ and to intentionally disciple one person into cross cultural ministry.  What am I going to do to meet this challenge is one question that comes to mind.  Another question we need to ask ourselves is: what is it going to mean?

We all struggle with having limited time, an unending list of tasks we need to accomplish.  The issue is one of priorities.  Saying ‘no’ to one thing in order to say ‘yes’ to another is not an easy skill for many of us.  We want to do both, but the reality is that we can only do one of the two tasks.

What the 1plus1 challenge is going to mean is at least two things. changed-priorities

First, it will mean taking some of our time from another good activity and use that time towards sharing the gospel story and mobilizing new workers.   Something will have to give in order for us to reach the challenge.

Second, our very structure, that is, the way we like to see things done, will need to flex in order to allow workers to prioritize some time both towards sharing Jesus, and mobilizing people.  The report needed today, can be sent tomorrow because I’m giving time to talking to a friend about spiritual things.  A particular e-mail may need to go unanswered one more day as a worker needs to respond to an interested potential new worker.

Prioritizing doesn’t mean we give up what we are doing or we don’t provide others with the answers or resources that others may be waiting for.  It means that we re-structure our day in such a way as to intentionally set aside time to share Jesus and mobilize workers.

Prioritizing is not an easy skill to practice. It’s why we need God and others.

 

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

What am I going to do?

Posted on January 9, 2013 by wtdavid

1plus1 is a challenge to each of us in the WT community to intentionally disciple one person into a relationship with Christ and to intentionally disciple one person into cross cultural ministry.  The question that immediately comes to mind is: so what am I going to do?

That is a question that each of us must answer for ourselves individually.  However, Mark in his reply to my post, reached out to all of us and asked for some ‘shared responses’.  He wrote: “I am wondering if there are others of you out there who read David’s challenge, but were thinking the same thing I am?  Let’s hear from you. And David, any advice for us?”

My response or my answer to the challenge comes with three questions:Progress in Action - Road Barricade Improvement and Change for F

One, why not intentionally plan time in my schedule to be with someone seeking Christ or someone interested in serving cross culturally?  My day can easily fill up with lots of good activities and responsibilities.  If being with others is a priority, then I need to plan that into my day or at least be open to divine interruptions that lead me to people who are seeking Christ or seeking to serve Christ somewhere in the world.

Two, why not pray asking God to lead me to the right places to fish?  I am not a fisherman by hobby, but I do know that if I’m looking for something, I need to put myself in a place where there is a likelihood I will find what I am looking for.  However, I don’t know the people in whom God is working and I need His help to discern where I should put my time and energies.

Three, why not look for ways to open up spiritual conversations?  Contextualizing the Gospel means in part that we look for ways that will allow people to engage with the Gospel themselves and discover Christ in that interaction.  Sometimes, I, along with you, get lost in a conversation and can’t see a way to turn it to Christ.  Being intentional will mean that we look for ways to bring the person into dialogue with Christ about their personal relationship with Him or their desire to serve Him. Caroline gave a great example the other night when she talked about all the discussion that was going on about the ‘end of the world’.  Her simple statement/question serves as an example of opening spiritual conversation: “It’s funny how people can get so caught up in this frenzy of thinking that the world is going to end.  And it didn’t.  But it sure makes one think about what is after all this.  Have you ever thought about that?”

There is no one path, but there is one challenge, and to meet that challenge we totally need God.

Filed under: 1plus1, Challenge, Sharing the Gospel story | 4 Comments »

1plus1

Posted on January 7, 2013 by wtdavid

Christmas is both a time to consider the wonder of Christ’s birth as well as an opportunity to again marvel at His ongoing presence and work among us.  Chris Tomlin’s song: “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)” underscores this thought in such a clear way.  How unbelievable it is that our God chose to come to dwell among us: “Emmanuel, Emmanuel, God Incarnate here to dwell”.

That intentionality serves as our anchor and our model.  Last January, we began the year by talking about such intentionality.  I wrote: “Missional living is a constant struggle of intentionality.  Our lives and ministries continually call for deliberate and purposeful action.  We do not wait for people to move towards us, rather we must move towards them in an intentional way, just as God did916492-16x9-512x288 and does for us.”

As we start this year, we are keenly aware of two facts that weigh heavy on our hearts.  One is the need that many right around us have for a personal relationship with Christ.  We are surprised by the growing number of irreligious or people who believe there is no God.  In a recent Church Life survey done in Australia, the number of people stating that they believed there is ‘no God’ had nearly doubled in the past twenty years.  Another is the constant need for more workers.  Currently, there are almost fifty appointees from our various Support Centers who are waiting to join teams around the world and who are not able to be ‘sent’ because of a lack of funding, training or ministry allocation.

In light of God’s intentionality towards us, in light of His desire that we be intentional in our life, development and ministry, and in light of these facts which tug at our hearts, here’s my challenge to each of us as we begin this year of 2013:

 

That each worker in the World Team community would intentionally

disciple one person into a relationship with Christ and that each worker

would intentionally disciple one person into cross cultural ministry.

 

If only a tenth of our workers met this challenge, we would welcome over thirty five new brothers and sisters into the community of believers.  If only a tenth of our workers met this challenge, we would have more than thirty five new workers ready to be mobilized to new ministries and people groups.  However, I want to trust God for much more than that!

Many years ago, Paul (WT UK) called to see if I wanted to run the London marathon with him.  I thought he was kidding.  I had never run a marathon in my life.  He simply laid the challenge out, stating that he had two bib numbers for the race.  His question was straightforward: “Are you in or not?”

If “you’re in” for the challenge I have laid in front of us, then share your ‘yes’ with another co-laborer in the Gospel so that you might pray for one another, trusting this intentional God to use even us to lead others to Him and to challenge others into service.

 

 

Filed under: Challenge, Discipleship, Sharing the Gospel story | 15 Comments »

Where Are We Going?

Posted on December 21, 2012 by wtdavid

Rebecca and I would, first of all, like to express our heartfelt prayer that each of you would have a joyous Christmas celebration and that you would experience afresh the incredible peace that comes from the gift of our Saviour!adorazione

As we move into this season of celebration, many of us will also take the time to reflect on where we have come over the past year and what we would like or desire to do in the coming year.  In early January, I would like to open that discussion with you as World Team community: reflecting on all that God has done in us and through us over the past year and our hopes and plans for this coming year.

 

 

Joyeux Noel

 

   រីក​រាយ​បុណ្យ​ណូអ៊ែល

 

   с   Рождеством Христовым

 
  Feliz   Navidad

 

   Maligayang   Pasko

 

  
fröhliche   Weihnachten

 

       jwaye Nowel

 
  圣诞快乐

 

 selamat Natal

 

 buon Natale

 

  
         
    Merry   Christmas

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Christmas, Reflection | Leave a comment »

The Peace-Joy Connection

Posted on December 20, 2012 by wtdavid

Many of us often dissociate elements of the Christian life and journey to the point where we compartmentalize the work of God’s Spirit in our lives.  For example, there’s the ‘peace’ box in our lives wanting to experience God’s piece.  We might do a word study on the idea of ‘peace’ and draw a number of helpful conclusions.  Then there’s the ‘joy’ box.  This is different from the ‘peace’ box and we’ll probably look at different biblical texts than those we looked at for ‘peace’.Kelly---Joy-and-Peace-762524

Now there is nothing wrong with this approach.  It just limits us from a more comprehensive understanding of what God is doing in our lives.  I was sharing a teaching on Isaiah 9:1-6 recently when I began to see this larger perspective. I was focused primarily on the notion of Jesus as our “Prince of Peace”; bringing that calm assurance of His sovereign care and work in the midst of struggles and difficulties.  What I discovered though as I looked at these verses was that in the larger sphere of life, peace gives rise to joy.  It has to; there is an interconnectedness we just cannot ignore.

God sought to re-establish peace with us. The Son came into our world to break the power of sin; so that ‘the people living in darkness would see a great light.’  Such a truth causes joy to spill out of our hearts as we consider at this time of the year, God’s incredible effort to bring peace, to reconcile people to Himself.

However, what if we applied this notion to discipleship?

I asked myself the question: If such key elements of our Christian experience are interconnected in this way, what impact should this have on how I disciple others?   One outcome would be the need to be more ‘connected’ in my discipleship of others; showing them how the elements of the Christian life influence one another, rather than treating them as individual ‘topics’.  Another outcome would be that discipleship is best carried out in community.  I cannot see all the interconnectedness that is there.  I need others to help me and to help others to see those other facets and push me to grow more in my love and awe at this relationship that God has entered me into with Him.

Discipleship implies connection: connecting with others to help them connect with God.  It is also helping another see the connectedness of the Christian experience as well as grasping that reality for myself.

 

Filed under: Character, Discipleship | 2 Comments »

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