• 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 change is hard for us

Posted on January 29, 2013 by wtdavid

change standChange is difficult for most of us.  To move from one place to another, one culture to another means we will walk through an adaptation process that is unfamiliar to us.  We will walk through “territory” that is unknown and must explore for the first time.

Most people say they don’t like change.  However, it’s not the ‘change event’ that is troublesome, it’s the transition process.  It’s the thought of learning new habits, building new friends, and establishing a life in a new location or a new ministry that is unfamiliar to you.  Change is hard because of the emotions surrounding that journey of transition.

Living as “immigrants” (1 Peter 2:11-12) in this world is part of our calling.  It means that our immigrant lifestyle, both as individuals and as a community, will entail change.  It means that we will need to “build a transition raft” that will help navigate the changes that will be part and parcel of this calling.

One critical element of change transition is a strong and vital community.  When changes arise, a community will provide us with the stability needed to walk through the unknown.  A community will drive us back to our power base, Jesus Christ, reminding us of His sovereign care and presence in all things.  A community does not keep us from change.  It resources us by helping us see God in the change and builds anew a prayerful and dependent spirit.

World Team is changing, and will change even more as we move into the future.  For that very reason, we need to be in community and grow in community so togetherwe can navigate well those changes .

Filed under: Change & transition, Community | 1 Comment »

Based on trust

Posted on January 25, 2013 by wtdavid

trustNowhere in the Bible do we find an exhortation to: “trust one another”.  We are told to “encourage one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11), “exhort one another” (Hebrews 3:13) and “love one another” (1 John 4:7).  We are told to put our trust in God (Proverbs 3:5-6).  However, “trust one another” does not make the list of ‘one another’ commands.

Why?

This is the question I asked myself.

Trust is placing confidence in another. It is giving another an open door into my life without having to order what that engagement should look like.  It is not an action like encouragement.  I encourage another when I tell them they did an excellent job in facilitating a gathering of the community, for example.  That’s a tangible outworking of that one another command; a very specific step that was taken.

Trusting another is difficult to describe in tangible steps because it requires relinquishing control, believing the other is “for me”. Trusting another is also a two-way street in that it moves us to desire to see another excel.

Now that’s the ideal, but it’s the ideal that we should be striving towards by the grace of God.  Sometimes, we determine our engagement with one another by a series of guidelines or by a “process”.  Though these are helpful at times, they may cause us to skirt around the issue of trust, and not push us to consider the level of trust that exists between us.

Trust is built over time, but trust is also granted.  Rather than always waiting to see if another merits our trust, maybe we should consider first what keeps us from trusting others.

 

 

 

Filed under: Community, Trust | 4 Comments »

Sharing stories

Posted on January 22, 2013 by wtdavid

If it is true that “one of the reasons why ‘working together’ is not a descriptor that currently characterizes us is because we don’t know others in our community as well as we should,” then we need to create opportunities where we can talk and engage one another.

In the past, during the World Team Institute of Church Planting, there was a time when people would “share their histories” or “share their stories”.  It was a moment where people talked about their spiritual journey.  It wasn’t necessarily a long drawn out event, but in several minutes you gained an appreciation for how God had worked in another person’s life.  I believe that time of sharing built trust among those present as you recognized the hand of God in another’s journey.Sharing_your_stories_623

Though we may not be able to regularly reproduce that history sharing time, our digitoral or virtual age allows us to engage in this kind of conversation, even from a distance.  Scott Peck, a writer who has written extensively on the issue of community, said that community can be developed over a long period of time or a very short period.  It’s the energy and intentionality that we put into the time shared that will move it more quickly to community.

Because “working together” is a value to us, and since this value is nurtured by time spent together, let’s seize the opportunities we have through Skype, e-mail, Twitter or phone to share our stories with another.  Certainly, when we are together, we can go deeper in that conversation, but why not begin building that trust relationship now virtually.

We can start down this conversation road by asking a simple question next time we’re “on-line”: what has the Lord been doing in your life this week?

Maybe you have another question to suggest.

 

 

Filed under: Community, Listening | 8 Comments »

Working together

Posted on January 18, 2013 by wtdavid

It’s right there in our purpose statement: “To glorify God by working together to establish reproducing churches focusing on the unreached peoples of the world.” Working together, being interdependent, is the foundation or platform on which we do our work.  Working together is not a strategy we use to carry out our purpose and mission.  It’s the way we choose to interact with one another in order to fulfill God’s calling.Working%20Together%20(Small)

We need one another.  This is not a solo effort.  The Bible affirms this value time and again when it talks about the teams or groups of workers that went out together to share the story of Jesus and establish His church.  We must intentionally seek others’ help, input and participation in order to multiply disciples and communities of believers.

Now I can say that I need others, and yet live and work without allowing any community to enter my world and lend a helping hand.  I could come up with a host of action steps to ensure that interdependence characterizes who I am as a member of the WT community. But, interdependence is first a relational stance towards another.  It’s not about a series of boxes that I can check off my To Do list, indicating that I got feedback from ‘x’ number of people or asked a specific number of people for their help.  It’s about who I’m talking with.  It’s about those whom I would go to because I know them and their heart.

One of the reasons why ‘working together’ is not a descriptor that currently characterizes us is because we don’t know others in our community as well as we should.  Trust is built by time and conversation.  Understanding and a desire to work together flows out of shared time that allows us to see the strengths and gifts of one another.

So, pick up the phone, “reach out to someone”, and take the time to talk with another.  ‘Working together’ would take on a whole different look.

Filed under: Community, Trust, Vision | 3 Comments »

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 »

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