Thoughts Along The Journey

Will you be joining in the discussion?

Posted on April 23, 2012 by wtdavid

Many of you are familiar with participating in a virtual conversation through Facebook, Twitter or Google+. You’re now invited to a blog discussion, hosted here each Monday for the next several months, around the book, King’s Cross, by Tim Keller.

A number of colleagues from around the WT community have been asked to help facilitate this discussion. So each week you’ll be hearing from someone different about their insights, along with questions to stimulate blog discussion.

We’ll officially start on Monday, May 7^th, looking at chapter 1, “The Dance”.

If you have not been able to get a copy of the book up to this point, I can send you scanned copies of the first five chapters for your personal use until you receive a copy.

So, will you be joining the discussion?

Filed under: Cross of Christ, Reflection | 4 Comments »

TC4u

Posted on April 19, 2012 by wtdavid

What would transformational community look like for you? To put it in a text message version: What would TC4u look like? This is the question we seek to answer in working out the second global priority: Each worker/leader will relate in a community where he/she experiences teaching, repentance, and new patterns of biblical living.

Dick Scoggins, who spoke at Mission11 Europe last summer, has written extensively on this subject in the context of establishing new communities of believers (www.dickscoggins.com). There are many others who have written about transformational or apostolic communities as well.

However, we need to describe anew what we (World Team) mean by community. In the next few weeks, I will be launching a working group to look into this topic and come back to me with recommendations and applications for us as a WT community.

Our desire is to train one another to live out in tangible ways the truth that: “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.”

Next post: Are you joining in the discussion?

Filed under: Church planting, Community | 3 Comments »

So What About Character Development?

Posted on April 18, 2012 by wtdavid

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his work entitled, Life Together, said this about community: “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.” I would contend that part of the ‘incomparable joy and strength’ that the community brings to a believer is to assist them to grow in character development.

The fourth chapter in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (as well as all the one another commands) is a case study for the need of community in order for character to develop. In that chapter, all the action words are in the plural ‘you’, indicating the need for one another to be able to grow in who we are in Christ.

Another of our global priorities speaks to this need: Each worker/leader will relate in a community where he/she experiences teaching, repentance, and new patterns of biblical living.

Community, team-time together, is first of all a place where true transformation happens and continues to happen in the life of the believer, of the worker. This community will give rise to national fellowships as those workers spread out and share the story of Christ with those they are meeting.

This community time is more than just a sharing and prayer time. It is a time where we hold one another to what the Scriptures call us to live out as a community, where we challenge, pray and encourage ‘one another’ in the Gospel.

Next post: TC4u

Filed under: Church planting, Community | 2 Comments »

Core Skills and LL3

Posted on April 13, 2012 by wtdavid

Each worker/leader partnering with World Team Global will be able to give voice to ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’

This is one of our global priorities which we will be working towards in the coming months.

Several steps will move us in this direction. First, we will draft the “WT Core”, a common covenant that will delineate who we are as members of the WT community and what we do. All workers will be asked to affirm this covenant, giving voice to what unites us together as a WT community.

Next, we will select 4-5 key skills of the CPM Roadmap in which every worker within WT will be trained. Some may feel that they have already grasped these skills, but in order to build a common body of knowledge and skills everyone must go through the same training. Sharing the story of the Gospel will be the first key skill we will address.

Finally, every worker will assess their competency needs on an annual basis and will be asked to further develop themselves over the course of that coming year. Training, mentoring, online courses and other delivery options will be offered to assist each one to grow in their competencies. We will call this “LL3” or lifelong learning. This cannot be optional as all of us need to grow further in our skills and abilities.

None of this is to the neglect of character development. However, I am sure that if you stepped onto a plane and the pilot announced that he was a person of moral integrity and fiber, but knew nothing about flying airplanes, you would quickly step off that plane. Yes, a balance is needed. Let us apply as great an energy to our competency development as we do to our character development.

Next post: So what about character development?

Filed under: Core competencies, Training | 3 Comments »

Raising our level of competence

Posted on April 12, 2012 by wtdavid

Many of us simply do not know how to respond to workers who do not have the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to do their ministry. When this kind of situation is allowed to go on, the agency suffers and often responds by working around the inadequately trained worker, the worker who lacks the needed competencies.

This is what is called the “frustration approach”. We become annoyed with the inability of the worker to do their ministry, and choose not to address their developmental needs. We work around them by carrying out their work or having others carry out their work.

There is another approach though. We could call it the “redemptive approach”. Our ministry focus becomes the development of the worker needing competency training. In this approach, we come alongside the worker and choose to honestly address their competency needs and bring the resources to them which would raise their level of competency. Rather than working around them, we work with them. If the worker does not demonstrate the skills needed to carry out the ministry task after this training, then we need to look at other ministry options which might be better suited for their current gifts and skills.

Raising our level of competency means allowing the community to honestly assess our knowledge, skills and abilities and bring training to us that will cause us to grow in our ability to more fruitfully carry out our task.

Next post: Core skills and LL3.

Filed under: Community, Core competencies, Development | Leave a comment »

Character and competence

Posted on April 10, 2012 by wtdavid

During a recent visit to Hong Kong, Mark invited me to attend a short seminar with him. Each speaker was given fifteen minutes to talk about the topic they had been assigned. One of the speakers spoke on character and competence. Fifteen minutes was not a long time to discuss such a deep issue, but it was fifteen minutes well worth my time.

Most nonprofit agencies do a good job of training their people in the character skills needed to serve in such a ministry. We, in World Team, have been traditionally strong on the area of character. We have worked through our smaller communities as well as large gatherings to demonstrate how the Gospel works its way deep into our hearts to change the way we relate to and work with others.

However, most agencies are weak in the area of competence. In other words, most agencies do not have a well defined body of knowledge and skills that need to be called upon by a worker to be able to do his/her job. This is the developmental piece – knowledge, skills and abilities – that is often neglected. So, in the case of World Team, we may send out a worker to start new communities of believers, but he/she does not have the skills or capacity to do what we are asking them to do. They lack the competence needed.

In the coming months, we will be working towards this goal: Each worker/leader partnering with World Team Global will be able to give voice to ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’

Next post: Raising our level of competency.