Photo Credit: Jon…in 3D (Creative Commons) Yesterday evening church met at our home. Rosaura had brought along a young man, maybe 16 or 17 years old, a relative. He gave his heart to Jesus last night. This was his story. "All my life I've felt as though I'm in a dark tunnel. I could see… Read More
Our friend, Steve Lyzenga did his doctoral dissertation on releasing resources (both financial and personnel) towards completing the Great Commission. He compared how resources are used within a traditional church set up and house/simple/organic churches. I had the honor of being on his doctoral board, and so was closely involved in the whole process. His results… Read More
Photo credit: Themikelee (Creative Commons) How are people in simple/organic churches currently actively engaging in cross-cultural missions? People move with their job. Because they already are familiar with simple church principles of mission (find a person of peace and start something around them), it is natural for them to make disciples and start churches in… Read More
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What does humor have to do with mission?
Photo credit: Gary Wilmore (Creative Commons) There is a saying that the British and Americans are two nations separated by a common language. That proved very true when we moved from the UK to the States in 1987. We naively anticipated that with a common language, the transition would be an easy one. How wrong… Read More
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The heart of mission
Photo credit: Amy Lloyd (Creative Commons) Jesus was sent by the Father to fallen mankind because of God's love for people. (John 3:16) Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has sent me, so I'm sending you." (John 20:21) As we connect with the Father's heart, he will send us out to touch the… Read More
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Becoming missional: We reap what we sow
I’m reminded of a story about D.L. Moody. Someone once criticized him for the way he brought everyone to the front to respond to the Gospel. “Well, how do you do it?” Moody asked. The man had no answer because he wasn’t leading anyone to the Lord. Moody’s response: “I prefer the way I do… Read More
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Abundant Gospel Sowing
Photo credit: david a lea (Creative Commons) When I was a new Christian, the group of believers I was part of participated in many forms of evangelism. We were trained by some of the best organizations in the Christian world. We went door-to-door, we distributed tracts, we told people about the Four Spiritual Laws, we… Read More
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Motivation for mission
This story used to motivate me to reach out to my friends who didn’t know the Lord. It comes from Things as They are: Mission work in southern India by Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), a missionary from Ireland who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She worked for 55 years without a furlough,… Read More
Roger and Brooks Thoman train and coach leaders in several developing countries, to multiply disciples and simple churches. The poor are empowered as part of the process of disciplemaking assisted by strategic investments in projects that are pioneered and managed by national leaders. Their ministry site can be found here, and Roger’s blog, Simple Church… Read More
Photo credit: maudandoscar In India a few years ago, we were taken to visit a church building that had twelve paintings, each portraying the death of one of the 12 apostles. (I think it was St. Thomas Mount in Chennai, but I’ve been unable to verify that via the Internet.) Those images have never left… Read More