Reflections on Leading With a Limp

I recently attended a mission planters conference. At the conference, the speaker, Darrin Patrick, mission planter at The Journey, St. Louis spoke a great deal about how missional leaders need to understand a paradox of leadership. This paradox is spelled out in Dan Allender's book Leading with a Limp. Allender says "to the degree you attempt to hide or dissemble your weakness, the more you will need to control those you lead, the more insecure you will become and the more rigidity you will impose - prompting the ultimate departure of your best people."

Patrick went on to say the following: The Apostle Paul's leadership was as much about repentant, reluctant, sin-confessing leadership as it was about strong visionary leadership. Paul identifies himself that way in 1 Timothy 1:15-16 "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. {16} But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life."

Leaders need a little God honoring reluctance. See Acts 14 – one minute Paul and Barnabas are worshiped as gods and the next they are nearly the victims of murder.

• Pastors, church planters and other leaders need reluctance because they will literally disappoint everyone at some time or another! Because you work with people, systems and plans, and all of these will break, reluctance is needed.

What did that humble reluctance with a dose of dependence look like for Paul?

2 Timothy 4:9-18 "Do your best to come to me quickly, {10} for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. {11} Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. {12} I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. {13} When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. {14} Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. {15} You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message. {16} At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. {17} But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. {18} The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

• Leadership is hard, always with a sense of loneliness! Reluctant leaders draw "big L" leaders around them. They are not trying to be rock stars. They rely on the Lord.

• Reluctance is a leader magnet! How do you get reluctance? 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. {8} Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. {9} But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. {10} That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

• Whatever the "thorn was" it caused Paul to be in a dependence crisis to trust God apart from his own skills and abilities and thus a leader with a sense of "reluctance." In the soil of dependence, God created character for Paul and still does so for leaders today.

• It is the same with us. Paul's character was shaped through his conversion which he describes in 1 Timothy 1:12-15 "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. {13} Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. {14} The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. {15} Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst."

• Leaders need to be reluctant and repentant.

• To have a culture of repentance in a church, one must confess their ministry sins (power, success, ambition, control, winning, etc.) Each is a dark side of something (e.g. While control can mean insuring quality, the downside is micromanaging others and discouraging others to use their gifts.)
  

James 3:16 "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice."
James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

• When we confess in this way…it lets the air out of our ambition (see 3:16 above)

• Questions to ask yourself when selfish ambition, power, success, control or the need to win start to raise their ugly heads in your ministry: Who are you trying to be? Whose model are you tempted to copy? (This is true for Pastors, other church professionals and lay leaders)
• How is God shaping you to be repentant and "reluctant" missional leader?
  

Evangelism to Red Apples -- Pre-Evangelism to Green Apples

James McDonald pioneered the concept of "red apple evangelism" in 1988 basing it on John 4:35.

McDonald draws a distinction between red apple evangelism and green apple pre-evangelism. God has prepared some people through sometimes painful circumstances of life to be ready to hear the Gospel (Red Apples). These are folks who God has prepared to hear and believe the truth of the Gospel right now! They are ripe fruit. New and existing churches need to teach people how to recognize "red apples" and be prepared to share the truth of Scripture in both words and in actions. McDonald says "It's not hard to see who is 'ripe' in our world. People who are hurting; people with problems; people whose lives are falling apart. They're all around us. We need to look for them under a rock or up in a tree, and we don't have to 'market' the Gospel to them. It's a pearl of great price to them."

Green apples are people who are not (yet anyway) ripe to the Gospel. Those are people whom we become friends with (pre-evangelism) even though they are not yet ready for the harvest. Our very friendship might be the instrument that God uses to prepare them to hear and believe the Good News of salvation through the blood and merit of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

McDonald contends that we spend too much effort on Green Apples and not enough on Red Apples. He puts it this way in an interview for PreachingTodaySermons.com

"Too often, instead of looking for the people God is breaking down and bringing to a place of humility... we want to reach whom we want to reach. Jesus went to the down-and-outers; we're a lot of times—and certainly in suburbia—looking for the up-and-outers. That's just not where the gospel is penetrating.

So what we've too often done in the church is build a philosophy of ministry that will allow us to get green apples in and out of church without offending them, and we call that evangelism. Eventually some of those green apples get ripened to the Gospel and they come to know Christ. We praise God for every one of those.

But we could be seeing far more people coming to faith if we skipped the dog and pony show and just went straight to the heart of the matter, which is reaching people whom God's trying to reach with a bold proclamation of truth - Red apples. They're ready to hear the Good News."

How prepared are we to reach out with Word and action to the Red Apples God has placed into our sphere of influence? How can we learn to recognize them? What if they are very different (socially, economically, ethnically) from us? Who is a Red Apple God has called you to share Jesus with?

A Missional Credo for Tough Times

Right now, banks are pulling back; mortgage firms are pulling back; individuals are pulling back from their 401-k plans and unloading their stock portfolios. Folks are trying to preserve what they've got and minimize their risks.

Churches might be tempted to pull back and minimize their risks as well, thinking that acting missionally is best left to better economic times. Habakkuk, the Old Testament prophet reminds us that we ought not put our trust only in what we can see with our eyes.

In Habakkuk 3:17-19 he says: "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, {18} yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. {19} The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights."

There couldn't be times much worse than that: no buds on the fig trees; no grapes on the vine; a failed olive crop; no grain in the fields; no sheep or cattle in pens or stalls. In Habakkuk's day that looked like economic disaster leading to starvation and eventual death.

Even though their were no outward signs of God's blessing, Habakkuk had confidence that God's blessings would come. In Habakkuk’s Creed everything turns on the first phrase of verse 18 “yet I will rejoice” – the word in Hebrew for this phrase is alaz which means “to rejoice in triumph” Habakkuk expresses that despite what he sees with his eyes, he is confident in God’s power to save and to strengthen him. His exuberance is so lofty that he says “He makes my feet like that of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”

His credo can be one for churches and individual Christians to think and act missionally. Worldly logic would say "this is no time to be planting churches" or "this is no time to invest my own time and money in outreach." Habakkuk's credo reminds us that this may exactly be the time that God is ready to produce the most fruit.

9-11 brought a flood of people into churches for a short time with questions and interest in things spiritual. Many churches may not have been prepared to leverage that interest to introduce people to Jesus. Some predict the current financial downturn to last for years creating a new and perhaps extended opportunity to introduce people to Jesus so that they learn not to "store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. {20} But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:19-20)

So, the next time I start evaluating God's actions only by what I am seeing, I am going to remember Habakkuk's words "yet I will rejoice...the Sovereign LORD is my strength...he enables me to go on the heights."

Three Missional Lessons in Hospitality From a Cruise Ship Crew

1st Peter 4:9 says "Offer hospitality to one another..." The Greek for "hospitality" is philoxenia (philos=love; Xenos= strangers) It means "to love the stranger.

Every one of our churches expresses the desire to share that kind of hospitality with guests but often struggle to do so. Our family (Becky, Jennifer, Mike and I) experienced philoxenia first hand on a cruise of Alaska just a few weeks ago. While the cruise was totally enjoyable, I observed 3 lessons in missional behaviors and attitudes that churches and leaders could learn from.

1) The highest level of care needs to be expressed at the lowest level of the organization: I know there was a captain on our ship because the ship went the right direction, arrived at each port on time and didn't sink. But, I only saw the captain once while he was going up a flight of stairs. However, I saw Bennie our room steward and Lelik and Bramadi our table stewards several times each day. They were warm and friendly, and by the end of the first day they knew all of our names and engaged us in welcome conversation. They expressed care which was genuine. It would have done little good for Holland America Cruise Lines to advertise "we have the most caring captains on the high seas" if those members of the crew who actually worked with passengers were not caring. Even if such and advertisement were true, it wouldn't matter if those who interacted with passengers didn't do the job. We knew that a good captain was commanding the bridge because at every level of the ship's crew, from top to bottom, that level of care was expressed and experienced. By the end of the week, Bennie, Lelik and Bramadi were our good friends. Sometimes in our churches we expect our pastors to be the sole provider of care and everyone's friend. While that might work in a church of 100, it won't work in a church much larger. The world's friendliest pastor can't compensate for unfriendly ushers, greeters and regular church goers. He needs to model that caring and continually teach it to the people in his church.

2) No "insider" language on board: The crew on our ship was mostly Indonesian which means that their native language is Bahasa Indonesia (what we call Indonesian) and yet all spoke English to the mostly American and Australian passengers. Even when they were talking to each other, they did not speak Indonesian but English. I asked one of the crew members about this and he said that this is always done because they do not want a passenger to mistakenly think that crew members are talking them. He also said that "we are here for the passengers and not for ourselves." We could learn much in the church as we have a great deal of "insider" language and expressions.
Our announcements, acronyms and even worship forms often assume others know exactly what we are talking about, even bordering on giving the impression that we never expect a guest to come who doesn't already know "our language." Those of us in the church need to continually ask ourselves how the language, expressions, and lingo affect those who are our guests. We need to speak their language.


3) Substance and style are both vital to a guest's experience: Having a well prepared and delicious meal every night in the dining room on board was promised in all the promos we read before taking the cruise. Card tricks and math riddles (when our steward discovered Becky is a math whiz) every night made our meals memorable. We were made to feel like we were our Stewards "favorites". Having a clean room with made up beds each day was important, but the attention to detail, the towel animals made by our steward each night and the engaging conversation with our room steward made us feel special. One might say "what's so special about that?...that's how every passenger feels."

Exactly -- no one is missed. Every passenger experiences the same level of care. Both the substance of what one experiences on a cruise (safety, good food, exciting destinations, learning about new places and people) and the style (the friendly respect from crew members, the special touches to keep everything spotless, making you feel important) are both vital to the experience. However, if it were all style and the food was bad, we were late arriving at every port or the ship sank, none of the style would have mattered. If the substance was gotten right but the crew was unfriendly and the ship dirty, most people would not sail with that cruise line a second time.

In our churches, it is important to get substance (Biblically faithful theology, God honoring worship, correct division of Law and Gospel, Theology of the Cross) right while we pay close attention to style (appropriate worship forms, welcoming environment, effective discipling methods). It is all part of what guests and members experience.

A New Look at Discipling --- Agree or Disagree?

David Putnam (Breaking the Missional Code, Broadman & Holman, 2006) offers a new look at the discipleship process that he says most missional churches have discovered. They challenge our thinking. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with his findings?

DISCIPLESHIP:

1. ...begins prior to conversion. In today's context, conversion is part of the journey and will often require years of participation in a local congregation before a person goes public with his or her faith. New missions are already figuring out how to do church in such a way that makes this possible for those who are just learning about Christ.
2. ...involved participation in a faith community prior to conversion. Churches will need to recognize the importance of relationships as the currency that moves the unreached and unchurched person toward genuine discipleship. Members of those churches spend more time connecting with unchurched people, loving them genuinely even if they don't become believers right away.
3. ...often involved participation and experience with the Christian community prior to conversion. Non-believers have even gone on mission trips with believers and along the way have come to know Jesus. Churches that understand this are proactive in creating experiences for those on such a journey.
4. ...involves participation in service prior to conversion. Churches that understand this encourage their members to invite unchurched friends to participate in service to the community. The very act of serving in a Habitat for Humanity project along side churched Christians may be used by God to move someone toward faith in Christ.
5. ...does not require "club membership" in the church before someone is permitted to usher, play in worship band, sing in a choir or even read the scriptures aloud in worship. Churches that understand this trust that the very fact that an unchurched person wants to participate in serving, in mission, or in worship - may expose people to the means the Holy Spirit uses to bring someone to faith.

So - what do you think? Do you agree? Are there others you would add to the list?

Sharing Jesus in Third Places

Each of us has a First Place,Second Place and a Third Place.

First Place for most people living in the developed world is the home. This is often a place of closely guarded privacy. The Second Place is where we work. The workplace can often be a place of huge demands and pressure. Third Places vary by context and culture and may be places like pubs and restaurants, places like Starbucks, sports team parents groups and anywhere that people feel free to be themselves. Kind of like the bar in Cheers, "where everybody knows your name." People will spend hours in Third Places and may know more about the lives of people there than most people in churches know about each other. Third Places are where the relationships that knit our society together are formed and fashioned. For many Christians, "church" is their Third Place. Often we expect people who are far from Christ and His family to come to our Third Place. After all, we feel so comfortable and welcomed there, we think that they should too...but they don't come. Perhaps what we need to do is meet folks in their own Third Place.

Why should Third Places matter to Christians? They are where we can learn about the culture of our communities. There we can learn about people's everyday struggles and concerns are. They are places we can ask spiritual questions. They are the places we can share Jesus. Afterall, people who don't know Jesus rarely come to our First Place , and often we are not permitted to talk about Jesus in our Second Place. Where are the Third Places in your community?

Where does this concept come from? Michael Frost's book, Exiles: living missionally in a post-Christian culture (Hendrickson, 2007)is the place. Michael is Australian and Professor of Evangelism at Moorling College in Sydney Australia.

Should Small Churches Plant Churches?

[from an article by Rev. Ken Behnken, Center for U.S. Missions]

How often haven’t we heard the excuse that we will plant another church when we get larger? How large is larger? At what point do you, as a new mission start, start thinking about having a family? This is something newly married couples discuss already in their courting days. By the time they are pronounced husband and wife they already have a pretty good idea about when they will start their family.

New church plants ought to be doing the same thing. The initial mission plan should include “family planning.” When will we start having children? It is never too early to plant a new church. Many non-denominational churches are grooming a team for a new church plant in their first year of existence. By the time they reach 100 members they are ready to give away leaders and members to help start the next church.

If we are serious about reaching more people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then we need to be thinking exponentially. We have daughter churches that have daughter churches that have daughter churches. This is New Testament thinking. Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, and the early apostles did not plant a church and wait until it grew to a certain size. As soon as there were leaders established in the new church, they were off to plant the next church.

Yes, it is costly. It will cost you money, people, leaders and delayed dreams. Your initial church would probably be larger if you did not plant another congregation. It is easy to get so focused on our own turf that we forget to look at the Kingdom.

A newly-married couple that selfishly chooses not to have children because it would interfere with their occupations and dreams of material wealth, come to the end of their lives having multiplied things but not themselves. When you plant a daughter church, you have multiplied yourself and are reaching twice as many people. As your daughter congregations plant new churches, the multiplication continues. Think of the joy you receive by watching God bless your children. Think of the joy you will have watching God bless your daughter churches. Think of the family reunions as you get together with your daughter churches and your granddaughter churches.

It is never too soon to start thinking about multiplying your church family. Prayerfully seek God’s guidance and then watch Him perform the miracle.

4 of Top 10 Growth Areas Makes Mission Planting Vital for Texas

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released data on the 10 metro-areas in the U.S. with the greatest population growth in the last one year period. Four of the ten are in Texas. DFW-Arlington at #1 grew by 162,250 people. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown at #4 grew by 120,544. Austin-Round Rock at #8 grew by 65,880 and San Antonio at #10 grew by 53,925. Austin-Round Rock is also in the 10 ten in rate of growth at 4.3%.
That totals 402,599 and does not include the growth happening elsewhere in Texas. That growth is not an anomaly but is the norm for our state!

The Texas District has set a goal that through its congregations, 200 new churches would start by 2017. Some might think this goal overly ambitious, but when compared with the growth of our state, it looks modest.

Whether these statistics are merely interesting facts or create an urgency to share the Good News of Jesus personally and have a stake in planting new churches depends on your view of the church. If the church exists merely to care for those already in God's flock, the numbers don't mean much. If, however, you believe that the church is a living organism that does not exist only for the benefit of its members, the numbers mean much more.

In state where only 17% of the population worships regularly, many of those 400,000+ new residents don't know Jesus well. In fact, for many, no one has ever even told them that Jesus loves them and has paid the price to buy them back from sin, death and the devil.

Every pastor, church worker and member needs to be asking "What is my stake in planting new churches that reach new people?" It is not a question for some future time but for right now!
1 Corinthians 7:29, Paul said "What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short." We are surely in those "short times" The time to begin is today.

Timing Makes all the Difference!

Phil Stevenson, who will be the keynote speaker at our Texas District LCMSM2C Partner's Retreat, May 6-8 wrote the following about timing in his weekly blog "Expanding Wave", April 2, 2008. His article has great questions which will help you as you plan to live missionally.

Timing makes all the difference. Being in the right place at the right time can be the difference in an opportunity taken or an opportunity missed. A good idea can go unattended if given at the wrong time. In football the link between a completion and an incompletion is often the result of the timing between the quarterback and the receiver.
In II Chronicles 2:1 we read, “Solomon now decided that that the time had come….” This had to do with the building of the temple. David had wanted to build it. David had a wonderful dream, but the timing was not right. This reminds us that the distance between the dream given and the dream fulfilled can vary.
It was 1989 that God birthed in me the vision to participate in a multiplication movement through churches planting churches. It was not until 1996 I had the privilege to lead my church in planting a new congregation. It was six years between the birth of the dream and the implementation of the dream. During those six years I cultivated the dream through education (reading, listening, attending seminars, talking to others, etc…), prayer and scribbling down ideas. I discovered this key principle: Make preparations and wait for God’s timing!

Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:25, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Keeping in step with God’s leading is critical in timing A right idea, even if it is God-given, is limited when delivered at the wrong time. Some have said it this way:

• The wrong idea given at the right time results in ineffectiveness
• The wrong idea given at the wrong time results in failure
• The right idea given at the wrong time results in resistance
• The right idea given at the right time results in success

Since timing is such a critical element when do you know, as a leader, when it is right? When is it the right time to rally your congregation to a new mountain top? When is it the right time to lead a congregation in daughtering a new congregation? When is it the right time to build? Relocate? Begin a new ministry? Start another campus? Implement small groups? Plant a church? Go to multiple services? Move to a new ministry? This is only a sampling of “right time” questions leaders wrestle with.
To the question of timing, I offer more questions. Navigating through these will provide you some guidance as to “when.”
• How you given it enough thought?
• Have you talked to the right people?
• What is the fallout of the decision?
• What is the benefit of the decision?
• What is your leadership “pain” threshold?
• Is it right, or just popular?
• Is it right, even if unpopular?
• Is there a stirring among the people?
• Are you willing and able to implement the decision?
• What does your gut tell you?
• What are you hearing from God?

Last thought: Most leaders miss the right time more to an unwillingness to decide than deciding too early.Who will applaud the decision? Who will boo?

Revitalized for Missional Outreach

Ed Stetzer, in the book Breaking the Missional Code spends some time focusing on what existing churches need to do to really develop an external mission focus. I talk to pastors and leaders on a regular basis who say "we need revitalization" and Stetzer puts his finger on one of the key factors for this to happen. He says:

"Most churches are not breaking through - but they can. Churches that need revitalization need to ask why they are stagnant in the first place. It is amazing but consistent - churches that need to grow think they can do it without change! They think they can break the code by doing the same things they have always done. the problem is, if they keep doing things the same way, they will have the same results.

Instead, most churches need to be led to embrace healthy change if they are going to see different results. . . Change is often needed to be more effective. However, people resist change. But if more people can see that change will produce growth, they are often more open to changing.

Christians love seeing people come to Christ - they just forget that joy. Too frequently, they have chosen their traditions over their children. They have chosen their comfort over their effectiveness. they are part of that 89% of churches not experiencing healthy growth."

The challenge of course is what things might be changed for the sake of the Gospel and what things must not change. One of our congregations consistently uses the phrase "Eternity matters most!" By that they mean that they will do anything for the sake of sharing Jesus with people in their community so that they might be God's instruments in changing eternity for someone.

How are you doing with change? What would you be willing to change? What must never change?

Not Letting "Handicaps" Keep Us From Being Missional

As some of you might know, my wife Becky, Director of Youth and Discipleship at Faith, Georgetown, fell while leading a senior high youth retreat on January 5th of this year. The result of her fall was a left ankle with multiple fractures and a right foot with a broken metatarsal bone. The ankle injury required a delicate surgical procedure to rearrange all the bone fragments with a titanium plate and 5 screws put in place to hold it all together. Becky's orthopedic surgeon shares a good prognosis, but a fairly extended healing process of one year. Many well meaning people have said, "Why don't you just take it easy? You deserve a rest..." and other well-meaning statements of encouragement.

Becky could have filed for disability, and focused all her attention on her own temporary "handicap" and everyone would have understood. But...that's just not how Becky views life and ministry. The day of her surgery she was in the office taking care of phone calls and making arrangements for classes and ministries she is responsible for. She did take off the day after surgery, but 48 hours later she was back for as many hours as she could stand without her foot swelling like a balloon. Becky sees the urgency of her mission as Christ's servant as just too important to let a wheel chair and two broken feet get in the way. Its not that she feels the church couldn't live without her; instead, as long as God gives her strength, she wants to be about his mission. If she waited to heal and walk with her own two feet, it would be 3 months or longer before she would be back in the game.

How about your church? What "handicaps" do people sometimes use for not considering church planting, evangelizing, or supporting Texas District or local missions. Congregations say things like "once we can afford our new staff person...or once we get our new Family Life Center paid for...or once we get past some issues of disagreement then we will become missional."

If we allow our congregational "handicaps" to be the excuse for not carrying out the Great Commission, we can always find a reason not to plant a church or share Christ with our community. If we wait until all is perfect in our congregations, we will always find some "broken ankle" that will keep us from serving. What "handicaps" do you want the Holy Spirit to help your church to overcome?

3.8 Million in 2007

"In the 30 seconds it took you to skim the headline and decide to read this post, somewhere in the world approximately 125 people were born, and 53 people died, 36 of whom did not claim to know Christ. In 2007, approximately 3.8 million people died who likely didn't know Christ."

That was the first paragraph of Editor Linda Lowery's column in the January/February 2008 Edition of "Outreach" Magazine. Statistics like that are always good for shock value as well as bringing home the point that the world is in urgent need of a relationship with Jesus Christ so that the eternal destination of multitudes can be changed.

However, I must sadly admit that while I find it easy to report those numbers, I struggle much more with translating that knowledge into real-time witnessing action in the circle of relationships God has given me. Because I spend the majority of my time working with churches, it becomes easy to spend all my time with those who are Christians already. When that's the case, the 3.8 million become a statistic that I feel dismay about but do little about personally. It's kind of like reading about the millions of children who go hungry every night around the world. The number is so big that I block it out as something I can't impact.

What would God have me do? As God opens my heart and mind, I see people all around me who need Jesus: a neighbor who grew up in a repressive church environment and has rejected the "institutional" church; my chiropractor who has expressed interest in spiritual things, and so many others. My wife, Becky has been faithful in an ongoing conversation with the guy who cuts her hair. This conversation has gone on for several years and I must confess she is more faithful than I in pursuing this witnessing opportunity. The bottom line for me is that I have to pray that the Holy Spirit would open my eyes to become very intentional in seeking opportunities to share the Gospel and be an inviter. I need to cultivate relationships with those who don't seem connected to God or any community of believers, genuinely caring about their eternal destinies.

When that happens, God can use me to have impact on whatever part of the 3.8 million come into my little world. When that happens in the lives of believers everywhere, the gates of hell are stormed, witnessing becomes part of everyday life, new missions are planted and more people get connected to God for eternity. How is God using you to impact the 3.8 million?

Extraordinary Prayer and Abundant Evangelism - Universal in Every Church Planting Movement

Les Puryear, a North Carolina Mission Planter in his blog "Joining God in His Work" reports that David Garrison who has spent years researching church planting movements in third world countries found that there are 2 universal elements to any church planting movement

The first is extraordinary prayer - not just the kinds that says "God bless our church planting efforts" but rather prayer to open the hearts of pastors, people and churches to have a passionate desire to share the Good News of Jesus with others and to plant new churches to evangelize and disciple those people.

The second is abundant evangelism. If prayer links a Church Planting Movement to God, then evangelism is its connection with the people.

"Essential to every movement is the principle of over-sowing. Just as nature requires a tree to drop thousands of seeds to produce a single sapling, or a human body to generate hundreds of eggs to yield a single baby, so it is with evangelism. In Church Planting Movements we find hundreds and thousands of people hearing the gospel every day and out of this abundant sowing, a growing harvest begins to take place."


"Conventional wisdom in the West has often taught a reasonable yet much less effective pattern of gospel transmission. "You must first earn the right to share your faith," goes the traditional model. "Once you have developed a friendship and demonstrated that you are really different, your lost friend will ask you what is special about your life. Then, you can tell them about Jesus."

I have taught this very concept myself. Garrison says this is a very western concept and not true. It certainly makes me sit up and take notice. I am still thinking about this. A passionate purveyor of Church Planting Movements denounced this Western model. "We teach that it's not about you or your earning the right to share your faith. Jesus earned that right when He died on the cross for us. Then He commanded us to tell others!"

That makes sense! It's Biblical. I still believe that I can be a more effective witness if I am willing to invest in the person as I begin to witness. That way I can share God's Word in ways that meet that person where he or she is. Also, the stronger the relationship I have with those who need to hear the Good News, the more urgent my witness becomes...because I want them to share heaven with me!

"If nature's principle of sowing abundantly to reap abundantly is true, then so is its opposite: if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. ( 2 Cor. 9:6) This simple truth is so powerful and yet many well-intentioned missionaries accomplish every lofty ideal except this one. To remind them of the importance of abundant gospel sowing, many successful church planters have prominently displayed a one-page sign at their workstation which reads: "How many of my people will hear the gospel today?" If there's going to be a movement, then the answer must be in the thousands."

This means that attractional programs, outstanding worship, servant events in the community, etc. can only be that which supports the personal witness of church planting pastors, launch teams and members of new missions. It also must be a core value and behavior that is not allowed to fade when the church reaches a comfortable size. What do you think?