Taking a break

We are taking a break from blogging for a while during our time in Texas for our son Joshua’s high school graduation. Thanks for your prayers for him as he begins a new chapter in his life.

Three questions churches should continuously ask themselves

1. What are we doing to deliberately make disciples?

2. What are we doing to intentionally plant/reproduce new churches?

3. What are we doing missions-wise to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and ends of the earth?

While I realize there is more to being the Bride of Christ than the answer to these three questions, it is hard for me to conceive of a church calling herself a church that does not have a clear plan to make disciples of the nations. The heart of God is a missionary one that loved the world so much that He gave what was most precious to Him, Jesus, so that we might be called the ‘children of God’.

While there is certainly room in the Church for more than evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and missions, if we allow these to become anything less that priority mandates, the inevitable result will be a turning inwards and the beginning of a decline resulting in eventual death of that body of believers.

My own observations about the decline occurring within the Southern Baptist Convention is directly related to the loss of this focus we have traditionally had as a denomination.

So how do we turn the decline around? For starters, try honestly answering the above three questions!

Stop Planting Churches! (and other great tips for church planters)

I am a long-time reader of Steve Addison’s blog “Movements That Change the World.” Recently he shared lessons taught by Tim Scheuer…

Be up front about Jesus. There are many more people out there than we realize who are ready for someone to tell them about Jesus.

Keep moving. Most of the evangelism Jesus did was harvest evangelism. He went into town looking for responsive people who became a beachhead for the gospel. Paul did the same.

Stop planting churches. Start making disciples. Then help those disciples to form churches in their world.

Cast vision early for simple neighborhood churches.

Stop trying to reach one person at a time. Look for the person of peace and then through them reach networks of relationships.

Don’t focus on “mature” Christians. The newest believers are excited about knowing Jesus. They don’t know that they shouldn’t be sharing their joy with everyone they meet.

Begin with the end in mind. What is it going to take to give every person in Airds the opportunity to respond to Jesus and follow him together?

If you’ve got this far and now you’re saying to yourself, “That nice but door-knocking won’t work in my context.” I have a question:

What will you do in your context to find the .1% or 5% or 55% of people who ready now to respond to Jesus and follow him?

They are out there. Like the woman at the well (John 4), and Cornelius (Acts 10), they will become the first of many.

As a missionary church planting catalyst, I find these to be excellent lessons, and agree whole heartedly with each. We are better at some of these than others. Which resonate with your experience?

Do they really understand our message?

“Esteban” is a good friend and fellow IMB missionary serving in South America. He has written the following in a prayer letter that caught my attention.

…Jesus gives us divine insight…when he says in Matthew 13:23b “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.” Jesus also says in Matthew 13:9 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. Really and truly UNDERSTANDING the Word of God is essential and absolutely necessary for those who will finish the race and for those who will bear and yield fruit.

Many times I have scratched my head trying to figure out why a church plant fails, why things start to crumble, or where people get their crazy ideas! Could it be that it is as elemental as their simply not understanding the word? Does the evil one really snatch away that good word which has been sown simply because they have not understood it? Wow, that is something to think about!

We assume people are understanding just because we have said the right words and they have smiled and nodded their heads. What has taken us a lifetime to understand and grasp, we expect those we are sharing the Gospel to instantly comprehend. Is it really a surprise when they don’t?

The reality in many cases is something quite different than we intended. I have seen this over and over again. People tend to hear what they think you are saying, not necesarrily what you are saying.

Another aspect of this is our tendency to believe people need lots of information before they can really “get it.” Often, little of what I am trying to communicate is getting across. All my words are filtered through their own world view, experiences, prejudices, upbringing, etc. How nice it would be if there were a way to get inside someone’s brain and see what is really being understood!

Our message is also suspect in that our listeners often question or are confused by our motivations. Why are they here? Why are they telling me this? What do they really want out of me? What’s in it for me if I accept their message?

Anyway, I think I’ll go back and meditate a bit more on Matthew 13. A key missiological feature is the need for people to clearly understand the Gospel message. It is our responsibility to communicate that message clearly.

MUSE-PrayerNewsletter, May 2010

Dear friends, family, and prayer partners,

Greetings from the Muses in Ecuador!

We have stayed busy since January of this year training four different groups of church planters. The fruit from these efforts is slowly beginning to show as the “70″ who have been in training have reported 50 new house churches planted.

I wish you could hear some of their amazing stories. Last week, Martha, shared with me that she never dreamed God would use her as He has the past few weeks. Martha is a poor woman who cannot read, but has a big heart for the lost. Twice a week she has between 20-25 who meet in the patio area of a house. Nearly all have accepted Jesus, and are being discipled by her and two other women who come over to help.

Starting 50 churches in four months has not been all fun and games. The Enemy has been in full swing trying to discourage, distract, and divide the new works. I wrote a bit about some of the challenges faced by those emerging church plants in my blog post Church Planting is Messy. Thank you for your prayers for these saints as they continue to persevere, often in the face of tremendous personal suffering and persecution. For those who are a bit more interested in the process we use for training, check out another recent blog post entitled CPM.

In February my brother-in-law Edwin and I were invited to the Galapagos Islands to train a small group of believers there so that they could have their own church. We baptized the first believers and these in turn were left as the leaders of the new church start. They have already doubled in size since we were there in February! Photos of the trip (and side trips!) can be seen here.

Linda has begun teaching English to young prospective Ecuadorian youth looking to serve the Lord as cross-cultural missionaries. This is a new and exciting day as God is calling out the youth of Ecuador to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

May 15, Linda, Anna and myself will be flying up to Texas for our son Joshua’s high school graduation. He has been living with my mom and dad in Seguin, TX since last Fall. We are very proud of him and looking forward to this 3-week visit with him and the family there in Texas.

Prayer requests:

1) continued love for the people of Ecuador
2) beseech the Lord of the Harvest for laborers
3) safety and health
4) our son’s future as he seeks a summer job and college in the Fall
5) wisdom from the Father in How long do we continue to stay?

Thank you for your faithful praying.

One of my favorite quotes, “Things happen when we pray, that don’t happen when we don’t pray.”

In Him,

Guy, Linda, Josh, and Anna Muse

——–
P.S. Anyone desiring to be added to our monthly PrayerNewsletter list, please send a blank email to: muse-prayerlist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

What’s the difference between converts and disciples?

This is a common question. If making disciples is the what we are to be about, how do we know if we are accomplishing this effectively? The difference between converts and disciples is that disciples obey what Christ commanded. Converts listen and might believe what they are taught, but little is applied in their own lives.

With converts, activity takes the place of obedience. We are easily seduced into thinking if we are involved in Christian activities, we are doing the right thing. Being obedient disciples is something quite different. It is not activity oriented. It is obedience to Christ’s commands. Not how much we know of the Bible, but how much we obey what Christ says.

Everyone knows, or at least has heard about the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. But how many Christians know and can quote the Ten Commandments of Christ?

As part of the Great Commission Jesus clearly instructs “teaching them to observe ALL that I commanded you…” What exactly did Christ command?

One quick test to see how much of a disciple we really are is to grade ourselves on a scale of 1-10 on the approximate degree of obedience to each of the following commandments.

Add up the points. If you score 50% or greater, you lean towards being a disciple. If 50% or less, you lean more towards being a convert.

1) LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH…YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. The Great Commandment: Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:28-31.

2) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. The Great Commission: Matthew 28:19-20.

3) …love one another. The New Commandment: John 13:34-35, 15:12.

4) …seek first His kingdom and His righteousness… The Priority commandment for every believer: Matthew 6:33.

5) …do this in remembrance of Me… The Lord’s Supper: Luke 20:14-20, 1 Corinthians 12:23-26.

6) …wash one another’s feet…you also should do as I did to you… The Great Example Commandment: John 13:14-15.

7) Abide in Me… The Commandment that is the secret to a fruitful life: John 15:4-8.

8) …beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest… The only specific request Christ commanded his disciples to pray besides the Lord’s Prayer: Luke 10:2, Matthew 9:38.

9) …do not pass judgment…do not condemn…pardon…give… General Commandments of Jesus for victorious living: Luke 6:37-38.

10) …love your enemies…do good to those who hate you…bless those who curse you…pray for those who mistreat you… Commandments for loving our enemies: Luke 6:27-36, Matthew 5:43-48.

Christians should not measure their spiritual maturity based upon their knowledge of the Gospel, but upon their obedience of what they know of the Gospel. We should never confuse our knowing the commands of Christ with obeying them in our personal lives. The Christian walk is not about what we know, but about how much we OBEY what it is we know.

My kind of church

I love this story that appears in Tony Campolo’s The Kingdom Of God Is A Party. Below is Gary Snowden’s abbreviated retelling of the story…

Campolo found himself wide awake and hungry one morning at 3:30 a.m. while on a speaking trip to Honolulu. He found a greasy spoon diner open and ordered coffee and a donut which Harry grabbed off the shelf (without tongs or wax paper of course) and plopped on his plate. As he was eating, a group of 8 or 9 streetwalkers noisily entered the diner. Their language was crude as well as the subject matter of their conversation and Campolo was planning his exit when he heard one of them who was seated next to him tell her companion that the next day was her birthday. Her friend seated on the other side of her from Campolo responded, “What do you expect me to do, throw you a party or something?” The woman by Campolo replied, “No, I wouldn’t expect you to do that. In fact, I’ve never had a birthday party in my entire life.”

After the women left, Campolo asked Harry if they came in often. He replied that they were regulars every night. Campolo asked if the lady seated next to him also came each night. Harry identified her as Agnes and said she was there each evening. Campolo proposed to Harry that he come back the next night if it was okay and decorate the diner for a birthday celebration for Agnes. Harry agreed and insisted that he would bake a birthday cake for the occasion.

The next night Campolo arrived about 2:30 to decorate the diner with balloons and streamers and a big banner that said “Happy Birthday Agnes.” By the time Agnes and her friends arrived, the diner was packed with other women who shared her profession. News had gotten out via the grapevine about the party. On cue, Campolo led the group in singing Happy Birthday to Agnes and Harry brought out the cake with the candles already lit. Agnes had gotten a bit teary-eyed at the singing of Happy Birthday, but at the sight of the cake she lost it totally and began to weep uncontrollably. Harry kept insisting that she blow out the candles or he’d do so himself, which he finally did. Harry handed Agnes a knife and said, “Go ahead and cut the cake, Agnes. We’re hungry. We want some cake.”

Agnes paused, staring at the cake and finally spoke to Harry. She asked him if they might wait a bit before the cut the cake. He replied, “Sure, it’s your cake. You can even take it home if you’d like.”

Agnes replied, “Can I really? I live just down the street. I’ll be right back, I promise.” Then carrying the cake as if it were the Holy Grail, she walked out of the diner and everyone sat in stunned silence.

At that point Campolo said, “What do you say we pray?” Looking back on the event Campolo said it was a highly unusual setting—a Baptist preacher surrounded by streetwalkers in a diner at 3:30 a.m. in a prayer meeting. He prayed for Agnes’ salvation and the blessings of God upon her life.

When he had concluded his prayer, Harry leaned over the counter a bit confrontationally and said gruffly, “Hey, you never told me you were a preacher! What kind of church do you belong to?”

In a moment of inspiration, Campolo replied, “The kind of church that throws birthday parties for streetwalkers at 3:30 a.m.”

After a brief pause, Harry responded, “No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!”

How long do we continue to stay?

“We tend to prefer answers to questions” says Charles Ringma in his devotional, Dare to Journey. “Answers are meant to reassure. Questions usually disturb us.”

As we approach our 24th year as missionaries here in Guayaquil, one of the questions that “disturbs” us is, how long do we continue to stay?

The IMB leadership suggests the following items as indicators when the missionary should begin to trasition out of their assigned people group/population segment:

• 2-5% status of evangelization in a people group or population segment
• 1:1000 church-to-people-group or population segment ration
• widespread 2nd and 3rd generation churches being planted
• 50% of church leaders receiving leadership training

While these are helpful, there are other considerations that must be included in the mix. The main one being a sense that it is the Lord who is leading us in this process of transitioning out.

While information is difficult to come by, I am fairly confident that we have surpassed the 2-5% evangelization threshold. But does that by itself signal our need to transition out? When only 5 out of every 100 people who die will go to heaven, have we completed the task? Is it time to move on? This is a tough question for missionaries to deal with. There are no easy answers.

Another related question: if we stay, are we being more of a hindrance than a help? Most missionaries realize (whether they admit it or not) that as long as we are on the scene people tend to rely upon us. We are looked to for answers, for help, for support, for training, for money…the list is long. As long as we are here the brethren will continue to lean upon us. It is a good feeling to be needed. Missionaries have a lot to offer emerging churches. But our presence can also be a limitation. Often our presence hinders local leadership from truly coming into their own. Ownership of the work is not really theirs as long as we continue to be present.

Is it right that we remain where God has placed us when daily unreached people groups–like those featured in the right-hand side bar from the Joshua Project–reveal that 0.00% of these peoples are reached? I don’t know about you, but everyday when a new UPG is featured showing anywhere from tens of thousands to MILLIONS with less than 1% reached, my heart is crushed. It is just not right. Where are the laborers? Does anyone care that virtually 100% of those dying within these UPGs will spend a Christless eternity?

Ringma continues…”there is nothing as significant as the power of the question…questions ruffle the smooth front of what we already know and open us up to new possibilities…but so often we close off the power of the question…” He concludes, “We many often think that God is only with us in the answer. He is, however, equally present in the question.”

So, how long do we stay? We continue to struggle with the question. Will you pray with us and for us?

How to kill church planting

By

David L. Watson / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

1. Establish a “Come To” environment, instead of a “Go To” environment.

Many church-starts begin by going to a new community, but then set up a building for people “come to” in order to find God or Community or … you fill in the blank. Going doesn’t stop until we are staying in homes, transforming individuals, families and communities. See Matthew 10, Luke 9, and Luke 10.

2. Make converts, instead of Disciples.

Most churches are concerned with convincing people to believe like they do and adopt the church’s peculiar doctrine – making converts. A disciple is one who believes like Jesus does and gives his or her life to be like Jesus and help others to find Jesus and become like Him. Converts are about a brand of church or denomination. Disciples are about obediently following the Master regardless of consequences. No one wants our religion, or our style of worship, or our doctrines. Almost everyone wants to be a follower of God, a disciple of Jesus without the crud we have added in the modern church. Yes, there are some who will come to our churches. What about the 80-90% who will never darken the door of a traditional church? They will refuse to become converts. They may respond to the becoming disciples of the Creator of the Universe.

3. Grow Churches, instead of establishing new churches.

I am frequently asked to consult with churches who are interested in starting new work. The first question I ask is, “Are you interested in growing your church, or in reaching your community for Christ?” Many people see these as the same. They are not. Growing a church is about getting more people to come to the church. The reality is that no single church appeals to even a miniscule part of society. Churches have personalities, and these personalities click with only a few. So, if you start out to simply grow a church, there is a limit to how many people can be reached, simply because most people will have zero interest in the church.

On the other hand, if you start out to reach a community, regardless of whether or not the new believers will come to any particular church, numerous churches with just the right personalities for new believers will be initiated. In the course of all these new groups being starting, the catalytic church or churches will grow.

One can’t reach a community by trying to grow a church. But, if one reaches the community by all means available, the church that does this will grow.

4. Teach stuff, instead of obedience to all the commands of Christ.

One of the most misquoted and misunderstood passages of the Bible is Matthew 28:18-20. Ask people, sometime, what this passage tells us to teach. I think you will be surprised by the number of people who will not say, “to obey.” Most of our churches, and most of our doctrines, are about teaching facts or knowledge about the Bible or theology or doctrine, or our own particular brand of church.

We will not see significant church planting until and unless we are willing to teach everyone to obey all the commands of Christ, our Creator and God. How does one teach obedience? By being consistently obedient in public and in private, in word and in thought. Obedience is taught by an obedient life that supports daily life decisions from the principles of God’s Word regardless of the consequences. A faithful life is an obedient life in all situations and circumstances regardless of the consequences of being obedient.

The Great Commission is one commission with four parts or commands. If any one of these commands is not obeyed, then the commission is broken and will not produced the fruit that God intended – obedient Disciples and Churches.

Matthew 28:16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)

Radical scandalous love for the nations

I first saw this convicting Dave Black blog post here.

The real problem in our churches is not that we are mired down in traditions. The real tragedy is that we have gotten our eyes off of the world for whom Jesus died. For instance, if we really believed that there are over one billion lost souls in this world who have never even heard about Jesus, then we would automatically begin rethinking how we spent the Lord’s money. Do we really need those Sunday School curriculum booklets? The answer is “Yes” if we put our church first. The answer may well be “No” if we consider the needs of the world. Calibrating our church budgets in light of the mandate to evangelize the whole world takes the focus off of ourselves and our comfort and spotlights the crying and dying needs of others. Moreover, a missional focus takes our eyes off of “our” kind – our churches, our denominations, our missionary programs – and unleashes holy havoc across the world as we intentionally adopt a cooperative model of serving King Jesus and building His kingdom of love.

Yeah I know, none of this is news to you. But that’s part of the problem. We so easily forget first things and make second things first things. So let’s rethink our church structures and priorities, not because someone tells us to, not because “the denomination says so,” but because Jesus calls us to radical, scandalous love for the nations!