God is at work across the nations, and I see many positive signs that he is at work here in the West too. Here’s a little of what I see going on currently (in no particular order of priority): People understand the importance of listening to God and doing what he says. The prayer movement… Read More
Tag: missional
Categories
If I were a missionary…
Photo Credit: rogiro (Creative Commons) Some people might say that Tony and I are already missionaries. Firstly, we have crossed cultures from the UK to the USA. (I sometimes wonder why here to the affluent West which is already so heavily Christianized when we would have willingly gone to any country in the world.) And… Read More
Categories
So you want to be a missionary?
Photo credit: breezy 421 (Creative Commons) Nothing magical occurs when a person moves into a cross-cultural situation. Arriving on foreign shores, a new missionary doesn't suddenly morph into an evangelistic go-getter. When we come across people who are about to go onto the mission field, while standing in awe of their commitment to Jesus, our… Read More
I am privileged to have Ed Waken, an evangelist, write this outstanding post on evangelism. What could happen if we didn’t view spreading the good news as a chore, a somewhat socially embarrassing spiritual duty to be performed, but instead an adventure with Jesus. You can read part 1 of this post here. Ed is… Read More
Are all of us called to evangelize? This series of blog posts has been on simple/organic mission and evangelism. It has provoked a slew of questions. I am blessed to know Ed, an evangelist who is involved in organic churches. Here is his unique take on some of the questions. Ed is a leader in… Read More
Photo credit: James Jordan (Creative Commons) What principles allow rapid multiplication on the mission field? Traditionally, follow up from an evangelistic meeting is done by taking people’s names and addresses and asking them to attend church or go through some materials. This is usually remarkably ineffective. In the context I described in the last post… Read More
Photo credit: williamcho (Creative Commons) Simple/organic church is a great way to not only conserve the harvest, but also to multiply it. We have a friend who is an evangelist in countries that are hostile to the Gospel. We originally contacted him because we were interested in the large healing/evangelistic meetings that, amazingly, he is able… Read More
Photo credit: Gravitywave (Creative Commons) Over the past few months, we have had several people from a more traditional church background and who are in the process of leaving for the mission field visit the church that meets in our home. The exchange has been valuable. Our “Jesus family” has rubbed shoulders with people sold out… 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