Simply ChurchOver the years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing much in the way of healing. I’ve been in meetings where people have been prayed for who walked for the first time, or whose hearing was restored. I’ve seen arthritis disappear, legs lengthened, epilepsy healed. (It’s not that I prayed for most of these people–just that I… Read More
A few years ago, I had the privilege of training a church in India in the principles of church planting. One of the activities we did was to listen to the Lord on behalf of the church. What was he saying to them as a body of believers? They were a wonderful group of people and… Read More
I came across a shocking statistic earlier today. According to the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (2012), the cost per baptism globally is $762,000! What are we thinking? I’m sure these figures include seminaries, buildings, training pastors etc., but sometimes I wonder, is this why Jesus died? I know you cannot put a figure on the… Read More
One of the practices that characterizes most of the church planting movements I’m familiar with is an emphasis on prayer walking. It is a core component of the process that results in rapidly multiplying disciples. If the Lord leads us to start a church in a certain neighborhood, we do well to prepare the ground… Read More
Sometimes it takes a story to help us realize just how much of a difference prayer makes. We have friends in India who picked two villages to visit. One of the villages they prayed for and the other they did not. When they later went in to proclaim the good news of Jesus, the village… Read More
Some of you who have been reading my blog for a while will remember the amazing story of Rosaura and her son, Jose (and another story here). Healing is a mystery! As a church, we’ve many times seen the Lord step in and heal. But not on every occasion. This time, Rosaura is instantly healed from 30 years… Read More
The key skill to making disciples and planting churches is an ability to recognize God’s voice. Do we know when he is speaking to us? Can we distinguish his voice from our own thoughts? Many of us have learnt how to do this on an individual basis, but how many churches put into practice the… Read More
It’s 2001, and Tony and I are in India where we are speaking at a conference. Another of the speakers is from India, and he’s someone we’ve wanted to meet for a long time because we’ve heard that he’s in the middle of an extraordinary, multiplying church planting movement. So in every break, I take… Read More
This last weekend, we had a round table in Dallas based on our book, The Black Swan Effect. It was an extraordinary time, with a sometimes overwhelming sense of the Lord’s presence. God spoke to us clearly. The climax of the day was a powerful time of ministry led by Brandon Chase, where on behalf of… Read More
Jesus told his disciples who fished for a living, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Commercial fishermen are disappointed if, when they pull in their net, there is only a single fish flopping about. They hope and expect to catch multiple fish at a time. Remember Peter’s dejection when he’s fished all night and… Read More