We leave tonight to participate with our workers in Asia at the Mission11: Vision Forward conference.
The key elements of these Area conferences are prayer, vision and community.
Pray that each worker would deeply experience each one of these elements and leave refreshed and en-couraged (given fresh courage) to serve in His harvest.
We’ll give updates from our time there.
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Here’s one possible response to the question I raised in yesterday’s post from Craig Ott and Gene Wilson in their book, Global Church Planting:
“From the outset national must be trained to do all essential ministries: evangelism, preaching, teaching, counseling, administration. The church planter must surrender the desire to have “up front” ministry. His or her primary role is behind the scenes, equipping others. The church planter who loves to preach must learn to focus on equipping others to preach; the church planter who is gifted in counseling will need to shift emphasis to empowering others to counsel.
The lay sermons will probably not be as homiletically polished or theologically astute as those the missionary could preach. But the reward will be the development of truly empowered local leaders who will serve the church well after the church planter has departed. The missionary is constantly working himself or herself out of a job, performing a ministry only so long as necessary to train a national. Indeed, apart from evangelism and initial follow-up, if a national is not available and willing to be trained, the ministry should probably not be initiated. This may make for a slower start but will result, we believe, in a more solid finish for the church plant.”
One of the essential attitudes, though, needed to keep our hearts and minds focused on the endpoint is gospel humility. Without a heart mastered by Jesus, convinced
of His incredible love for us, we could not keep an other-centered focus, where we would always seek to equip others in ministry and release them to that task.
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I like the way one writer describes our work as “that ministry which through evangelism and discipleship establishes reproducing kingdom communities of believers in Jesus Christ …” From the very start, we must be about developing, empowering and releasing local believers into ministry. Otherwise, our work will not give rise to ‘multigenerational reproduction.’
Craig Ott and Gene Wilson in their book, Global Church Planting, put it this way: “When the response is slow, church planters should pray patiently, sow the gospel and make strong disciples using indigenous principles. There will be pressure to shift to another approach, to assume the pastoral role, or to become the primary “doers” of the ministry. But this is counterproductive in the long run. Expatriate workers who do this may plant a church – even a large church – but will not launch a CPM, and they may in the process set a negative precedent that hurts multiplication for another generation.”
This process of developing, empowering and releasing others into ministry does not happen through a one, two, three step method. It is more of an ‘art’, directed by the Spirit. Yet, though the process may not be straightforward, we must always keep in mind the image (the endpoint, in other words) we are ‘painting’ from the beginning. If we do not prayerfully work towards making strong disciples and giving them the ministry, we will fall back into becoming the primary doers of ministry.
What are the ways we can keep our minds and hearts focused on that endpoint?
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In a recent WT Asia newsletter, Tim posted the following article. I share it with you as an insightful reflection on how the Gospel works itself out in our lives and ministries:
“Recently I finished a book, When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I was affirmed in some ways and challenged in others in regards to our present ministry at Mercy Medical Center. In the first few chapters, the author lays out a framework for the four foundational relationships of humanity: relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and with creation in general. Each of these relationships (the latter 3 flowing out from the most important relationship with our Creator) has been severed by the fall.
If we are to see lives truly transformed, each of these relationships, beginning with and foremost with God through Jesus Christ, need to be restored.
One of the main themes of the book is “poverty”. Westerners tend to think of poverty only in material terms, but in reality every human being is suffering from a
poverty of spiritual intimacy, a poverty of being, a poverty of community, and a poverty of stewardship. This has led me to reflect on our ministry here regarding these foundational relationships. (No answers yet; I am still in process.)
Another point that has me contemplating is: “We missionaries in the developing world are not bringing Christ to poor communities. He has been active in these communities since creation” (Heb 1:3; Col 1:15ff). Obviously, the people there may not recognize that God has been at work or that God even exists. Again I wonder how this affects how I do ministry. Do I think I am bringing Christ to people? Maybe I should be looking for how He is working and join Him in that work He has already begun. (Again, no specific answers yet; I am still in process.)
Bottom line is that I find myself striving under a works mentality, at times feeling like I need to do the work instead of depending on Christ and walking in His Spirit. Last week I turned 53, and I was thinking to myself, I have been walking with the Lord almost 30 years. Why am I not more sanctified? Why do I still get so anxious and have sleepless nights at times about my circumstances? Oh, I have times where I am at peace, but then I want to grab the reins back from God and control things. Why don’t I just rest in Him more and rely on myself less? (No specific answers yet; I am still in process.)
Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God …”
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I posted this blog post several weeks ago. I thought I would post it again, in an abbreviated format, as a sort of “encore” because of how the book, A Praying
Life, impacted so many of us. I would really love to hear your responses to the questions at the end of this post:
“I’m not sure there is any better way to finish our study of A Praying Life other than quoting from the beginning and end of Paul Miller’s final chapter:
“In the stories I’ve told in this book, we can see God weaving a tapestry. In my experience, as we abide in him, he usually shows us what he is doing. But sometimes he doesn’t … We live in many overlapping stories, most of which are larger than us. Each of us will die with unfinished stories. We can never forget that God is God. Ultimately it is his story, not ours …
May the knowledge of the coming return of our King cause us to persevere with grace and courage in a “praying life”!”
I would love to hear your reflections on this book in light of these questions. Please post them as comments to this post. I will make a
summary of that feedback for a future post.
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At the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, delegates exuded an incredible optimism in regards to missions in light 
of the trends of the day. In one conference report, it was stated: “Never before, has there been such a conjunction of crises and of opening of doors in all parts of the world as that which characterizes the present decade.” A growing “globalization” was “evidence for the feasibility of attaining the goal of world evangelization.”[1]
Those words could have easily been written in our day. They certainly show the unpredictable nature of global currents or trends. The delegates at the Edinburgh Conference were sometimes on the right track, and certainly recognized the significance of a number of currents. However, they often misinterpreted the information or the data that they had because of their theological bias, cultural perspective, prevailing attitudes or other issues.
So, does that mean we should not concern ourselves with global currents? Not at all. We are called to be wise and discerning of our times. We must prayerfully interpret all that we see, so as to discern how God wants us to live, minister and act in this changing world.
If nothing else, what we should be learning from the rapid change around us is that missions in the 21st century will need to be even more flexible and responsive, with high degrees of collaboration with others.
More on that as we journey forward together.
[1]
Donald M. Lewis, editor, Christianity Reborn (Grand Rapids, 2004), p. 53.
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Thoughts Along The Journey 