Not Exactly Our Plan, But A Good One!

So, God called us to go to South Asia, to make His name known among a population of over a billion people- of which less than 1% claim to know the name of Christ, and an even smaller percentage of those claim to be evangelical Christian.

So, unless we went, those people will not be reached with the Gospel, right? The task and the burden is upon myself and my family- it is OUR responsibility to stay in this place, where God called us, until the task is finished, right?

How selfish and arrogant to think of ourselves as THAT important in the task God is doing in South Asia. It does not disqualify us and excuse us from going, however, but if we think we are leading God into those places, we are sadly mistaken, and we can easily be a failure.

We traveled to South Asia, pretty much knowing nothing other than God wanting us in a specific place for His glory. After learning a tremendous amount from our team members and the national brothers there, we felt like this was the place for us- until God called us away in the distant future of His perfect timing. The problem with that thinking is, God's timing is not perfect when we try to control it and put limits on it.

We loved our place of service even before we got there, and grew to love it even more as we stayed, but God had other plans. Our home church was putting a team together to go to Thailand with the task of multiplying disciples, leaders and churches. They asked us if we would consider joining the team and brining our 2 years of experience in church planting to it. WHAT? What about where we are? The ministry is going well. We are seeing a lot of fruit. Many volunteer teams have come through here and brought the vision back home to the U.S. AND, why would we give up being completely taken care of financially through the IMB to go an raise our own financial support to go somewhere else? It did not make any sense to me, and we struggled with the decision of what to do.

So, we prayed about it. We found that we were not sent to South Asia with the IMB just to reach the lost and equip church planters how to focus their ministry and reach the lost themselves. Those are important, but just as important was the valuable time we spent growing in the Lord, and learning how to live overseas, and what further purpose and plan He had for us in His master plan of reaching the unreached. God was equipping us for another purpose and another place of service for Him through our time in South Asia, and the more we prayed, the more we felt that it was time to step out of our new comfort zone we had made and get uncomfortable again in order to glorify God.

So, we said yes and left South Asia. We are now with a team of 11 adults and 5 children (2 of them ours) that are preparing to go to Bangkok, Thailand this year. We are growing as a team by attending a 5 month missionary training school in Atlanta, GA- Global Frontier Missions. By this summer, mostly all of the team will have moved to Bangkok. Since we have had a later start in raising our ministry partners, we will be joining the team later this year. We are excited to be heading out on our 2nd missionary journey as a family, knowing that what God wants is better than what we want. Jesus prayed, in Matthew 26:39 "Father, not my will, but yours be done." Father, no matter where your will takes us, not our will but yours be done.

I'll share more about our times here in Atlanta in future, and SOONER posts.

New Updates- Yes, from America!

What a journey it has been. We have come home, just a quick 2 year stay in South Asia with the IMB, and it has come to an end already. We enjoyed our time, saw much fruit, even saw successful church planting through what God had equipped us to equip others with. It did not come from us, but God channeled it through us to those who could be most effective. We feel extremely blessed to have been in the place God put us that people would reach out to Him.

There was sadness in finishing and saying goodbye, committing the church planters to the grace of God's word and the work that He called them to. There was sadness in leaving a place that became our home so easily. There was sadness in saying goodbye to so many close friends- neighbors, church planters, business owners- all of them cried when saying goodbye, which made it harder. We were covered by God's grace in coming home, no travel problems- only a long journey. We came home and were greeted by friends we had left behind 2 years ago, and rejoiced as they were able to help us with all 12 of our suitcases!

No rest, however as we returned in time for the Christmas season, and after about a week of jet-lag, trying to find things we needed for daily survival, and driving on the wrong side of the road and nearly giving my in-laws a heart attack, we shopped for gifts for each other and for the kids- the first real mall shopping we had done, talk about reverse culture shock! My son accepted Christ in July, and we shared our joy with our home church as I baptized him- what an incredible joy!

After Christmas, we packed and headed down to our next journey- a Missionary Training School in the Atlanta, Georgia area. We are currently living in a local community with a team from our home church preparing to go and live in Thailand. Our vision and purpose is to multiply disciples, leaders and churches to spread God's glory in that place. During our time in Atlanta, we are preparing ourselves by team building, training, community ministry and fund raising (we are no longer with the IMB but are being sent our through our home church).

The plan, is to be in the Atlanta area for 5 months of training through Global Frontier Missions, and then, if our funding commitments come in we will be able to join the team which will move to Thailand in July of this year. If funding is not complete by July, we will stay back and raise support for however long it takes and join the team later. We are way excited to be part of what God is doing and what He will do through our team.

Thanks for checking in- more blog posts will come, so stay tuned!

Church Planter Updates

Seriously, two months since my last post. We have seen some great things happening with our church planters here, so I thought I really needed to post the updates. *I'll use initials to indicate them.

PW* is leader of one large city church. There is 12 people from his church that have a hospital and prison prayer ministry. On one visit, the group met a man at a hospital who inquired of them. He was interested when they said they follow Jesus, and he invited the group with PW* to his village to share good news. 60 people showed up to hear the good news, and all were very happy hearing it. 17 people took baptism from the group, including the man that brought them to the village. PW* began sharing the things he is learning in our group and he went out and shared Jesus in 8 different places- each one is now getting discipleship and meeting for church.

RK* went to a new village and has been sharing with the people. Now, between 40-50 people are meeting for prayer and listening to bible teaching. He has been getting calls from surrounding areas for him to come and teach and pray in their village. In his home church, he has been teaching the things we are learning in our group. For years, the local church has had outside pastors come in and give baptism to new believers. Last month, because of RK's teaching, the pastor of the church gave baptism to 7 people. Now for the first time, they have taken authority to do things on their own.

CS* visited 7 new places searching for men of peace. He has found 3 places open to hearing the Gospel. A husband and wife took baptism and have been taught how to share their story to others in their village. 12 other people have accepted Christ and are ready for baptism. In his main church, there are 6 people who are coming regularly but are also doing Hindu rituals due to pressure from their families and neighbors. Pray for wisdom to handle this situation.

BG* has been doing ministry for years. He has started 6 churches locally in the last 5 months and is still going. He is also helping a friend of his with church planting. He shared the Gospel with one of his friends and his wife, and they accepted Christ. They are now meeting in their house for church. They haven't been taught about baptism yet, but BG said that is next. One of his churches came to him and asked if they should be giving money to the Lord. He said yes, but that they should appoint a treasurer from among them and then decide what to do with the money as a church.

SK* met one man of peace, he accepted Christ and took baptism. SK is meeting in his house and is discipling him regularly.

DS* is pastor of a church here in the city, as well as one of the leaders of the mission organization we're partnering with. He has had trouble with the believers showing much interest in coming regularly to church. DS has been helping with translation during our training meetings, and knows our training very well. He has started to implement things that we are teaching to make the churches healthy. He gave authority to one member to be treasurer of the offering, and when the church decided what to do with the money, they would have the treasurer do what the church decided. He encouraged the church to appoint a deacon to help organize worship. Another was appointed to organize fellowship. Now the believers are excited to be part of the fellowship, and have taken ownership of the church. They no longer depend on DS to do everything, but he has given authority to the church to function on its own if needed. Before, when he left town, the church would not meet. Now, when he is absent, the church meets on its own. This is what we want to see happen. Churches that are self sufficient and not dependent upon one person or organization to keep it going. The church is also ministering to their local community. A lady was badly injured by electric shock, and could not function for many days. The church reached out to help her during this time until she could get well. The local non-believers noticed the church reaching out in love to help this lady, and they are curious as to why they are taking such good care of her. They have been given a great opportunity to be the Light of Jesus to their community, and the members of the church are excited to do something together to help their local community.

Things have also been happening with some CPs from our last group. 3 of them are training other groups of CPs in different districts in addition to leading churches and other church planters of their own. There is much talk around the state that this method is the most practical and effective method to reach and multiply God's kingdom here. Please continue to pray for the faithful men and women who are impacting this place for Jesus.

Healthy Church

The main thing we teach our CP's is about God's purpose and goal and how we can reach them. God's purpose comes from Habakkuk 2:14- "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." God's goal is seen in two places in Revelation- 5:9-"And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. " and 7:9- "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands." So, in church planting, our purpose and goal needs to be the same as that of God. If they are different or they do not line up with God's, our plans will fail.
We teach them that the key to reaching God's ultimate goal is through healthy church. However, many church planters do not know what healthy church is, so we have to teach them and show them what healthy church is from the Bible.

1. 1 Goal and Purpose- God's Glory- The church has to have the same purpose as God- that his glory cover the earth; and same goal- that every person come to salvation. If the church's purpose and goal is not in line with God's, there is no health and the rest does not matter.
2. 2 Authorities- God's word and the Holy Spirit. This does not excuse us from other authorities as believers. In fact, we are directed by God's word to submit to authority, so we are not free from following the law. The Holy Spirit is given by God, and we know that the Holy Spirit will not do anything against God, so the church must be led by God to be healthy.
3. 3 Offices- Pastor, Deacon and Treasurer. We know from scripture- Ephesians 4:11-12- "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" The term used here is pastor, and is also seen in some translations as "shepherds." It means to give care to the believers in the church and to teach/equip them for works of service. The job of pastor is one who equips the body of believers. If 80% of the work in the church is done by 20% of the people, and much more done by the pastor, whose fault is it? It is the pastor's fault for not equipping God's people for works of service. He is to equip those to be apostles (missionaries), prophets, evangelists and even other pastors. Paul gives the qualifications for pastors in 1Timothy 3:1-7. Deacon is the second office that is needed in the healthy church. We see this modeled in Acts 6. The Apostles told the church to appoint deacons to take care of the needs of the believers. The deacons are the servants of the church, and are to take that responsibility. The qualifications for deacon are given by Paul in 1 Timothy 3:8-12. The third is a treasurer who takes care of the money taken in church as tithes and offerings. This keeps the pastor from accusation of dishonesty with the money. Also, his job is already busy enough equipping the believers; he really has no time to deal with the money. The same goes for deacons; they are busy serving the church. The church planter doesn't need to handle the money because he is probably working around other places and also might be seen as untrustworthy after handling the money. The treasurer, however, should be one who is trustworthy, but is given responsibility to hold the money. He is not the one who decides what to do with the money but only the one who holds it and gives it out at the decision of the church. We do not have any scripture references regarding the qualifications of a treasurer, but we know they are needed and we can assume that the qualifications are similar to that of deacons. Actually, we can follow Jesus' example of this. Jesus was accused of many things- being a drunkard, associating with sinners, breaking the Sabbath, being demon possessed, and even blasphemy. However, He was never accused of mishandling money. Why? He had a treasurer, though maybe not the best choice for the job in Judas! The treasurer's job is to protect church leadership from accusation. If any one of these three offices are not present, the church cannot be healthy.
4. 4 Marks of Maturity/Self Sufficiency- Self-Governing, Self-Supporting, Self-Reproducing and Self-Correcting. By Self Governing we mean that a healthy church can make decisions for itself without any outside influence, such as the church planter or missionary. Who was it that chose the first deacons in Acts 6:1-7? The church! The apostles instructed the church to appoint them, but there was no debate when the decision was made. The apostles trusted the leading of the Holy Spirit in the church to choose the right men and they left the decision to the church. They empowered them to govern themselves and it went well for them in the future when the church was scattered by persecution. A church dependent upon the apostles may have been destroyed by this troubled time. A Self Supporting church must have ownership of its function. It means that the ministry and outreach the church performs is fueled by its own resources. Acts 2:44-45, the believers had everything in common and gave to anyone as they had need. Acts 4:34-36, there was no needy person among them. People sold land and the money was distributed to any who had need. Other scripture regarding self-supporting is in Acts 11:29, 2 Cor. 9:10-15, and Philip. 4:14-19. If funds continually come from the outside, the church cannot be self-sufficient and becomes dependent upon others to provide. Also, the church never have to be taught about giving because of the support they receive. Until the church practices disciplined giving, dependence will keep the church from becoming healthy which limits the spread of the Gospel. Self-Reproducing means that the church is able to send apostles from its own body and plant other churches. The healthy church will take responsibility to evangelize its field and reproduce other churches. Paul talks about this in 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8; that they became a model to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia, and that their faith in God has become known everywhere. The church is called to be an example and multiply, and only by multiplication will the kingdom of God grow quickly. Healthy churches reproduce new believers and new churches. The last is self-correcting. A healthy church has a firm grip on scripture as its guide, and a proper use of scripture shows that health. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," Scripture must be the source of teaching and training and can be trusted for rebuking and correcting as well. Again, we can say that the two authorities of the healthy church are scripture and the Holy Spirit. Just like an infant is dependent in the early part of its life, so is the developing church. However, when the child is helped to grow correctly, it grows into a self dependent and self sufficient adult. If the early church is developed correctly and is encouraged and taught to be dependent upon itself, it can grow into a self-sufficient healthy body. On the other hand, an adult who is still dependent upon its parents to feed it and make decisions for it is silly. In the same way, an older church that is dependent upon a church planter for teaching and decision making or outside funds for support is just as silly.
5. 5 Functions of Healthy Church- Worship, Fellowship, Evangelism, Discipleship and Ministry/Service. We get these functions from two passages of scripture- In the Great Commandment, Matthew 22:37-39- "Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " From this we get three of the functions. Worship is the expression of love toward God. Anything that the church does as an expression of love toward God is worship. That could be singing, giving, praying and acts of obedience to His word. Fellowship is loving the body of Christ. Believers have two kinds of neighbors- lost people and believers. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is fellowship, and any act of love toward our spiritual family is fellowship- praying for one another, giving to those brothers/sisters who have needs, and carrying each others burdens are all acts of fellowship. Ministry- we are also to love our lost neighbors. Showing the love of Christ through our actions and attitudes is ministry. In order for the church to be healthy, it needs to consider these acts of love as a strategic aspect of its function. In other words- serving the sick and the needy but not sharing the Gospel with them while doing this is not the function of a healthy church. God wants to draw people to Himself through our actions, but those actions need to lead to an opportunity to share Christ with the lost. Serving people's earthly needs is important, but their eternal needs must also be addressed. The last two functions are found in the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20- " Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Evangelism means to go and make disciples; share the Gospel with those who have not heard. It may also be called missions. According to Acts 1:8, this can be done locally and at great distances. For a healthy church, doing evangelism/missions should be a part of everyday life. Discipleship means to teach others to obey everything Jesus has commanded. A healthy church is actively focused on moving believers forward in their relationship with Christ. The church must plan to provide tools and accountability. The five functions of a healthy church can be seen in the 1st church in Acts 2:41-47. If you look at the passage of what this church was doing, you can find the five functions happening. All 5 functions of the church should be happening for the church to be healthy. If any one of them are missing, then the church is unable to be the key to reaching God's purpose and goal.

These are the things that compose a healthy church. The basic functions are all there for church health, and all backed by scripture and examples given by God. There are some things the church should do that are not mentioned here like baptizing new believers, taking the Lord's Supper and giving. However, if the basic functions of the church are addressed, then these other functions are realized through the leading of the two authorities- God's word and the Holy Spirit. Through these, the church will see them as necessary functions as well and will do them in submission to those authorities.
I realize this has been a long post, but I felt since we have been really stressing to our church planters the need for them to plant healthy churches, that I needed to share this. Test your own church in these and see if they are happening. I'm proud to be part of a church that is doing all the above mentioned things to grow God's kingdom not only locally but globally. I am also proud to be witness to national brothers here in South Asia who are catching this vision and working within the plan of God- that they see the key to realizing God's purpose and goal fulfilled in this place is through healthy church.

Excitement

The way we do our training here, we do combined 2 day group teaching and iron-on-iron time together. This past meeting was really first with the new group. We will usually give them some action items to do before we all come together for the next training a month later. They all come back and report on how they did and how their ministry is going. In between these trainings, I have the priviledge of going to visit them in their places of work. This week I was able to visit two of our new 16 for the first time.

Yesterday, I met with A. and his family. He was eager to tell me about things since our group meeting. He is very excited about the way his ministry is going since he started learning new things. He has been doing church planting for some time, and he knows all the right terminology for church planting, but he has had no clear focus or direction for the things he has learned in the past. I was really happy to hear how he had been affected by our training, and now had a clear focus for what he is doing. We taught the group about Luke 10:1-11, in finding the man of peace in a new place. First, to pray for God to give you a new place to go, and then go to that place. The man of peace is there, God has placed him in the place he is sending you to proclaim Jesus. Well, A. has since been waking up at night feeling that God is speaking to him about new places, and he has been planning to go to these places so he can share the gospel and start new churches in them. He is really excited about having direction in his ministry. Many others have seen a difference in him; even the main leader of this group who is helping me and has put this group together has noticed the change in his attitude and how excited he is to move forward in church planting.

This is great news, and I cannot wait, as I said before to see what these brothers are going to do with more teaching. Stay tuned!