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Why are we failing to fulfill the Great Commission?

April 14, 2010 in Church Planting Methods, DISCIPLESHIP, Ministry Philosophy, The Leader, Training Leaders with 0 Comments

Could it be that as men of God we have lost our vision for the world. It was not on purpose! Many have become so busy doing the work that they have lost the big picture. It is as though all were working on building a large building, bridge or railway. It is easy to become a bricklayer rather someone building a cathedral. It is easy to be the guy placing the crossties and not the guy building a railroad. We can’t see the forest for the trees! God wants us involved in World Evangelism but maybe we are too busy taking care of a few people to see the big picture.

We have fallen into the traps that so easily detour us from our real ministry. It is easier to do the work than it is to teach someone else how to do the work. It takes less time and gets done right when the man himself does the job. Due to this we do not take the time and effort to train others.

Our insecurities that others may steal our place and the love our people have for us. Or another insecurity might be that we aren’t sure that we can teach someone else what to do. We fear that our training has not been sufficient to train others.

We do not believe that we can impact the world so we plan to do all we can to reach our area or our people.

As long as we stay clean and stay where we are then we have done our duty.

God has set before us a task that is bigger than us. We are to evangelize the world.

Could it be that we have wrong goals for our ministry such as conversions, crowds, church buildings, building a great church, getting your people to be holy and using the gifts that God has given you for His glory

These wrong goals lead to wrong results

Salvation decisions to boast about in the next church questionnaire

Numbers to show in your slide or video presentation

A beautiful empty building that keeps you busy

A ministry that makes you look good but ties you down. You become a pastor just like in the states only in a different country and in a different language

You offend everyone and they leave your church. You develop parasitic people that depend on you to think for them and trust you to guide them.

You can’t go on furlough without getting another missionary to take your place because no national can do it as well as you can

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Training leaders of leaders

April 10, 2010 in DISCIPLESHIP, Training Leaders with 1 Comment

As a missionary or pastor our goal is to train leaders that can train other leaders. The following are some notes to get you to thinking. Feel free to contact me with your opinions in the comment section below.

To train leaders we must first start with the leader

a. The birth, death and resurrection of a dream

God has given you great dreams of planting churches and expanding the kingdom. That is a great dream but you will find that things do not work out like you want. Before God will work it out your dream will be tested greatly. Very likely your dream will die and then God will resurrect it when He is ready to do and you will really give Him the glory. Check out the thoughts below:

i. John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit

ii. Moses—to lead the people Israel out of Egypt—to a sheep shepherd lost in the wilderness—to God’s man to lead the nation of Israel free with signs and great wonders finally at age 80

iii. Joseph—everyone will bow down to him—13 years as a slave and prisoner—second in command to Pharaoh

iv. Abraham—to be the father of many nations—failure on every hand, his servant can’t serve as a son, Ishmael can’t be his son, Isaac is to be sacrificed—father of the Jewish nation

v. Paul—tries to preach in Jerusalem—ends up in the wilderness and Tarsus—Barnabas seeks him out—he writes half of the New Testament

vi. The more He plans to use you the more you have to die

b. Brokenness is necessary

i. For God to use a man that man must experience brokenness. Every man that God uses must come to the end of himself so that God can show His power in the man’s life without that man taking credit for what God does. With God the way up is down. To live is to die. To get is to give.

ii. Jacob the crafty will limp the rest of his life

c. Differing abilities

We must realize that God did not give all of us the same number of talents. We all want to think that we are the latest and greatest. We want to believe that we are the apostle Paul but there are very few like him.

i. Matthew 25:14-30

ii. Some are one talented while others are two and five talented

iii. Matthew 13:8

iv. Some are 30 fold while others are 60 and 100 fold

d. Comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise, nor are we to judge one another

i. 2 Corinthians 10:12

ii. Romans 14:4-5

e. We should never be satisfied. We are to bring forth fruit, more fruit and much fruit John 15:1-8

f. Be careful to do or have done what you want to teach. You can not lead people to a place you have never been or do what you have never done

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The importance of the media ministry!

April 6, 2010 in Africa, Church Planting, Discipleship, Ministry Philosophy, Missions News, Muslim Missions, Muslim World, Training Leaders with 0 Comments

The following paragraph comes from an article entitled Morocco: Are Christians at Risk? It is interesting to note what has gotten more results in Morocco. We definitely believe in putting men on the ground. God wants a man on the ground planting churches. God has given us some good men doing just that. Without them there would be no real discipleship and church planting. The church is God’s way to conserve the results and to train men to continue carrying out His plan.

But notice how this blogger claims that most people are “converted!” They hear the gospel from different forms of media. That is our goal.

As a team for years we have had three words as our ministry goals: Men, Media, and Materials! We will continue to do just that. Number one and most important is to put a man on the field. That is why it is first in the list. We want to be training “leaders of leaders!” But we also want to use the media to get the gospel to the lost and then have a contact that is interested in the gospel.

Will you pray for the men on the ground right now? Will you pray that God allow us to get more and more media up to reach souls?

In the main article, it points out that most Moroccans convert to Christianity more as a result of Arabic media and not from foreign missionaries. This jives with my experience: a number of Moroccans I know have had long conversations with Christian missionaries about religion and none have converted. Some defended Islam while smoking hashish just to piss off the Christians, it that gives you an idea of how many Moroccans understand their Islamic identity. This observation about foreign missionaries, of course, undermines the rationale behind the recent expulsions of many foreigners.

Check out bcwe.org

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