All of my ramblings about simple church, church planting movements, intimacy with Jesus, reaching the unreached, and caring for the poor in one place. The good stuff from here ends up at one of the following two sites:
Appleseed Ministry -- highlighting the international work that we do among the unreached and poor.
Simple Church Journal -- the transformational journey into simple/organic churches that take the life of Jesus outside of the walls and into the world.
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Packer reminds us that even "a little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him."
The good news is that God can be known. We simply want to eliminate the mediators and the idea that knowledge about God is the same as knowing him. Thus, discipleship is always discovery-based (people encountering God themselves through the Word of God and the Spirit of God) and obedience-based (rather than the accumulation of knowledge). Both of these together draw people into a personal, experiential, love relationship with God.
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What Happens in Three Days of Training?
For those of you who want the technical stuff... read on. (For those who prefer the heart-and-soul plus the humor of our travels, skip this post).
What happens in three days of training? It is impossible to describe all of the dynamics that take place as relationships are built, vision is extracted from the team, principles of church planting movements are taught and discovered through teaching, sharing, and case study exploration, team issues are dealt with, and personal issues often come to the forefront.
But just to provide a glimpse into one part of the outcome, here is a list that the team in Oaxaca came up with that they intend to apply in order to produce greater fruitfulness in church planting:
- Cast more seed: besides the medical clinics and the work program, we (this team) want to extend our efforts to connect with still more people.
- Simplify and clarify our compelling vision to train church planters.
- Help existing groups to begin multiplying. Use the practical training of helping them to tell their stories and develop their list of people to share with.
- Pray and look for Persons of Peace more intentionally and more expectantly.
- Go to pastors and see if there are any who would want to cooperate by having some of their members getting involved in starting new churches.
- Increase our prayer focus.
- Use discovery-based discipleship methods.
- Use oral Bible story-telling.
This has been a fantastic group to work with and we are excited to partner with them and support them in every way that we can.
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Practical applications from the missionary team in Oaxaca on how to move toward greater fruitfulness in church planting.
The missionary team in Oaxaca came up with the following practical applications for their own team in order to increase their fruitfulness in church planting. This came out of three days of training on CPM principles and team development:
- Cast more seed: meet more people, share our story with more people, and invite more people to joining us in Bible study
- Simplify and clarify our compelling vision to train church planters
- Help existing groups to begin multiplying. Use the practical training of helping them to tell their stories and develop their list of people to share with.
- Pray and look for Persons of Peace more intentionally and more expectantly.
- Go to pastors and see if there are any who would want to cooperate by having some of their members getting involved in starting new churches.
- Increase our prayer focus.
- Use discovery-based discipleship methods.
- Use oral Bible story-telling.
This has been a fantastic group to work with and we are excited to partner with them and support them in every way that we can.
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Baptism in a Bathtub
Our first day of training missionaries in Oaxaca was broken up in the afternoon by a baptism of a family. The most natural place to bury the old life and rise up in Christ's new was the bathtub in a friend's house. The occasion was marked by much feasting and celebrating as they shared the joy of their new life with their friends and family.
While this missionary team is new to church planting, they are already seeing several new groups forming and people reached. In addition they are involved in providing medical care in villages as well as developing a Work Program to employ local people in well drilling. Their vision is to see churches in every one of the hundreds of villages throughout Oaxaca.
Our friend, Brian, joined us as we brought three intensive days of training covering:
- Principles of church planting movements
- Tools for disciples reproducing disciples
- Team-building and vision-focusing
- Tools for leadership development
Perhaps, even more important, is the way that God takes missionaries like this and knits us together with them. In just a few days, we feel like we have become part of their family and that they have become part of ours. I wish I could communicate to you the encouragement it brings to people who are serving in a foreign field to know that you have sent us to embrace them and join them together with all of you as part of their support system, so that they can continue to advance the kingdom in a needy part of the world.
We will continue coaching the team leader and are so excited to see this dynamic team becoming part of the Appleseed family.
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Out of the Starting Blocks
We are on the first leg of our journey to Mexico (Los Angeles to Atlanta) but not without some challenges.
Two days ago we unexpectedly took on the fulltime care of two of our grandchildren (ages 6 and 13) up until leaving. So this morning started early as we had two kids to feed and get off to school before throwing our just-packed suitcases into the car and hustling our way down to L.A. Then we faced a security line that snaked its way outside the terminal doors and along the sidewalk for at least a block. It took us over an hour to make our way through. This made our experiences with security measures in Africa (pat-down) look easy!
Ah well, we are on the plane and all is well.
We did take the time, on the way to the airport, to pray for the wonderful missionary team in Oaxaca that we will be working with. It stirs my heart to think of their commitment to live among and reach these unreached villages in a needy part of Mexico. We feel privileged to be part of their adventure in a small way and excited that all of you who are traveling with us, through prayers and concerns, have a partnership in this work as well.
So, I will wrap up with a little inspiration from Bruce Wilkerson's new book entitled "Your Were Born for This: Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles." It has been stirring my faith today which is a great way to start a trip like this. Here are a couple of quotes:
You were born to walk out your door each morning believing that God will use you to deliver a necessary miracle today.Many have stopped expecting miracles, asking for them, or even knowing how to partner with God to invite them. In other words, they have abandoned the Everyday Miracle Territory and often measure success by how little they need God.
Wilkerson goes on to talk about how we tend to either live in the world of Glamorous Signs and Wonders (seeking to raise the dead) or the world of Good Deeds (no expectation of the supernatural). He suggests that we miss the in-between territory he calls Everyday Miracles in which we can partner with God in everyday, ordinary situations and see him work powerfully in the lives of others by preparing ourselves to be open to his nudgings and let him work through us. He is suggesting that it is far easier and for more accessible than we realize.
God is constantly at work in supernatural ways in our world, and He has much He wants to get done... God is regularly nudging people to respond, but most people miss His intentions or simply say no.
Next stop (Saturday): Atlanta to Mexico City; Mexico City to Oaxaca. Thanks for coming along!
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You were born to walk out your door each morning believing that God will use you to deliver a necessary miracle today.
"You were born to walk out your door each morning believing that God will use you to deliver a necessary miracle today." You Were Born for This: Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles by Bruce Wilkinson
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From the Safety of the Pulpit to the Risky Business of Interacting With Lost People
Several years ago I had to acknowledge that I had invested so many years serving Christians that I knew little about interacting and loving people who did know and follow Jesus. It has been rewarding to discover that the same spiritual gifts I used in "the church" are the same ones that God can employee as I "go" and interact with the unchurched.
Victor Choudhrie challenges us to consider the importance of this transition:
There is a total mismatch between Yeshua’s dialogical style and the way the modern church functions. Leaders are equippers rather than sermonizers. Long term formal training prepares pulpit orators for the faithful, while interactive house churches prepare fishers of men for those outside the fold. Not the Sunday anointed sermon but continual contextualized discipling provides connectivity with the people of other faiths and is the key to church reproduction and multiplication. Theological training has been reduced to the ability to recite textual knowledge. Bible schools have become textbook recitation centers with no training in fishing skills. Ministers trained in this paradigm, unlike Yeshua and Paul; do not have the skills and therefore courage to indulge in dialogue and dialectics. There is an urgent need for opening up the church and unshackling equipped laymen and sending them as worksite ministers into the lost world.However, there is a wind of change blowing and the content of the training material and teaching activities are being filtered through the Great Commission grid and kingdom framework. Producing bookish scholars, with the Great Commission buried under a pile of books, is no longer the preferred destination but mentoring champion disciple makers, baptizers and church planters. Shift from the safety of the pulpit to the risky business of interacting with the lost people should be the destination. This is the way forward in the next decade for dealing with the lostness of the world around us through worksite ministries.
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The Sending Potential of Simple Churches
My friend and team leader in D.R. Congo has seen over thirty churches started in a year. But even more exciting is to see his group sending out cross-cultural missionaries within this first year.
One young Congolese, Daniel, is leaving in the next month to live with a Pygmy tribe (Pygmy children pictured) to live among and reach these nomadic people. He is being sent out and helped with the financial support of his Congolese simple-church brothers and sisters.
Although there are still several thousand unreached people groups (with virtually no witness of the Gospel), imagine the potential of simple churches rapidly raising up and sending leaders who are willing to cross cultural barriers to live among (incarnationally) and reach these groups.
Although it makes no sense, many underdeveloped countries do look to the western church for leadership. As the western church embraces and models a church without walls, this is releasing a potential around the world for reaching and sending that, perhaps, has never existed before.
These are exciting times that God seems to be engineering.
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