August 15, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Church Planting

Plans that seem like nothing
Church Planting, Leadership, Evangelism

Plans that seem like nothing

It is that time of year again, when we are asked to develop annual ministry plans for the coming year. We dream about what we would like to see happen in 2017 – and then we face the reality of our limited financial and people resources.  We do not want to discount what God can do, and so we seek to set goals that call for faith and utter dependence upon God. But we are also told to make sure that our annual goals are SMART: S – Strategic (How clearly does it propel our vision forward?) M – Measurable (How will we know when we have completed the goal?) A – Ambitious (a faith-stretch) (Does it require us to depend on God?) R – Realistic (Do we have at least a rough idea for how we could work towards accomplishing it?) T – Time-bound (Have we determined a deadline… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Church Planting

Why Should I Leave?

“Why should I leave?” I was recently in a strategy discussion with SEND North church planters at Marsh Lake Bible Camp in the Yukon Territory of Canada when one of the participants asked, “Why should I leave?”  Why should a missionary enjoying fruitful ministry in a particular community, move out of that community prior to their retirement?   The discussion continued acknowledging that the question was important but no clear answer emerged.  … Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Church Planting, DMM, Book Reviews

DMM – Book Review of David Watson’s Contagious Disciple Making

DMM’s (Disciple Making Movements) have sparked much interest in the missions world of late, particularly for ministry in challenging contexts. David Watson, as one of the leading practitioner and thinkers in the area, has written Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery along with his son, Paul Watson as a practical and valuable guide to obeying the Great Commission. While David is engaging in his in-person teaching, drawing on rich examples from his own ministry, his written work is even more balanced and valuable for those involved in establishing churches, particularly among the unreached. DMM is often used synonymously with CPM or Church Planting Movement. Watson defines CPM as “an indigenously led Gospel-planting and obedience-based discipleship process that resulted in a minimum of one hundred new locally initiated and led churches, four generations deep, within three years” (Kindle location 210).… Read the whole post
Ted1 min read
Church Planting, Disciple-making

You Are What You Do, Not What You Eat

In October of 2014, on my first trip to Japan, I was able to ride a bullet train, visit SEND church planters in the Tsunami stricken region, and attend the Asia Regional Equipping Seminar (ARES) hosted by SEND Japan. The topic of this training was Disciple Making Movements (DMM). I was confronted by a number of ideas about church planting, which rocked my thinking a bit. One of those ideas had to do with approaches to help integrate learning and doing, a key area of interest in my graduate studies on adult learning. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says “make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything…”. For me, when I studied diligently and taught accurately, I was quite satisfied with myself. Teaching in a seminary for over 10 years has helped to reinforced this view. But that is not the whole of the great commission (see Gary… Read the whole post
Ted1 min read
Leadership Training, Church Planting, Disciple-making, Training, Book Reviews

Reaching and Teaching in Animistic Oral Cultures

A review of M. David Sills’ book Reaching and Teaching the Highland Quichuas: Ministry in Animistic Oral Contexts In my last post we looked at Sills’ book Reaching and Teaching: A Call to Great Commission Obedience. This book is clearly a follow up to this work. It is in essence an application in practice of the principles in the earlier book. “This book explores how the Lord led missionaries to minister effectively among a specific people whom he called to himself: the Highland Quichua people of Andean Ecuador.”(pp. 2, 3).The book highlights the challenges of reaching and teaching an oral people group with a long history of syncretism:… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
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