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Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Training Page 11 of 27

Reflections on the Radius Debate

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On May 22, 2019

In Training

In recent years, church planting strategies have been broadly divided into two major categories: Church Planting Movements and the traditional model or what is now being called the Proclamation Model. Sometimes advocates of Church Planting Movements (CPM) prefer to call their strategy “Disciple Making Movements” or DMM. If you are unclear about the differences between these two church planting strategies, see this very helpful article by Ted Esler in the International Journal of Frontier Missiology. The table on the last page of the article summarizes the distinctions.

There has been no small controversy in the debate between proponents of Church Planting Movements (CPM) and proponents of the Proclamation Model. Blog posts and articles have sometimes included unhelpful and judgmental rhetoric.

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Why did Jesus prohibit his disciples from going to the least reached?

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On March 7, 2019

In Training, Contextualization, Evangelism

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. – Matthew 10:5–6 Why did Jesus not send his disciples to Gentiles and Samaritans? The Gentiles were the people who knew the least about the true God. From a missiological standpoint, they were the least reached. The Samaritans knew something of the Law but were not accepted as genuine worshippers of the God of Israel. They were also unreached and proved to be among the most responsive to Jesus’ message. Among them, Jesus saw one of his greatest harvests (John 4:35-42). The Jews, on the other hand, had already received many opportunities to hear about God’s grace over the centuries past through the prophets and the Law of Moses. Many of them were very resistant to any message that would… Read the whole post

Not OUR disciples

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On February 25, 2019

In Disciple-making, Training

Who are your disciples? Whom have you discipled?

While these questions are helpful in directing our focus on the importance of disciple-making and encouraging us to be intentionally investing in other believers, I think there is an inherent danger as well in these well-intentioned questions.

During my sabbatical last year, I spent a lot of time thinking and reading about discipleship and disciple-making. I became increasingly convinced that in order to be a disciple-maker, we first need to be a disciple. In other words, to learn how to be a disciple-maker, we need to be learning from Jesus. As Dallas Willard so aptly said,

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Two-sided writing

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On October 31, 2018

In Disciple-making, Training

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. – 2 Corinthians 3:1–3

I have a grey SEND T-shirt with the words, “Be Disciples, Make Disciples.” It communicates a central idea, key to our calling as missionaries, but also to every Christian. Each of us has been called to be both a disciple and a disciple-maker. We need to be learning and growing disciples of Christ who are multiplying ourselves in the lives of others so that they also become learning and growing disciples of Christ.

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Reflections on Worship

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On October 16, 2018

In Training

Andrew Peterson’s Resurrection Letters, Vol. 1: Songs that fuel missionary worship

If John Piper is right (and he is) that worship is the fuel and goal of missions (Let the Nations Be Glad, 11), then missionaries ought to cultivate their worship. Music is a prime means of expressing our worship. In my personal time with the Lord I often will meditate on the lyrics as I listen to Christian artists. I have especially enjoyed Andrew Peterson’s lyrics for their imagery and biblical content.

This past Easter at our church we sang Peterson’s new song, “Is He Worthy” drawn from Revelation chapter five. I was overwhelmed. I could not speak for a while. A friend of mine said to me “that song took me by surprise.” He was likewise moved. When I got home I downloaded the Resurrection Letters, vol. 1 album and started listening. The whole album is a delightful meditation on the cross and resurrection. The songs are rich in biblical imagery and the instrumentation is beautiful, especially the hammered dulcimer. The album provided the structure for a day alone with God this past summer. After each song I read passages of Scripture prompted by the lyrics. It was a rich day of worship.

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