Suffering in China

May 16th, 2008  by Ted

This just in from an American living in China:

It has been a week of great suffering for the southern part of China,Sichuan area and it’s impossible to make sense of it all. A sister in the h.c. asked me last night if it was the sin of the country or of the world that caused this to happen. My only answer to her is that the cry of our heart’s is all the more, “Come, Lord Jesus,come quickly.” The urgency to spread the good news is at hand and a tragedy like this only makes us think of how many people died without hearing the name of Jesus.

If you want to give financially to assist in this disaster, here’s how:

  1. Use this link for donations to Pioneers: https://secure.call-kc.com/pioneers/
  2. It will ask “Please accept my gift for:” and choose “Other”
  3. Use account number #150262
  4. Under “Special Instructions” you can put “China Relief” but it’s not necessary if the number is in correctly.

Thanks for considering this need!!

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Posted in Relief & Development | No Comments »

Under construction for a few days

May 15th, 2008  by Ted

About once a year I like to update the theme on this site. I have just come up with this and will be working on it, live, for a few days. It’s mostly done, but I have some work to go yet.

Thanks for the patience.

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Reflecting on Personal Devotions

May 15th, 2008  by Ted

For many of us, our personal devotional time is not very well thought out. If we have a good habit of taking time with the Lord, we usually do something simply “just because.”

I have been reflecting on my quiet times lately. I took a few notes as I did so. Here are some thoughts that I have which are actually aimed at me - but you might find them helpful as well:

Chronological reading programs are good (I use one) because they help with consistency. BUT, does your reading program leave time for prayer and reflection? I think this is one reason why my personal quiet time can get dry over time. Leave time to do more than read.

Do you have a prayer list? I use my moleskine notebook to track prayer requests. I rarely go back and review how God has answered. When I do - it is amazing and very encouraging. Don’t forget to review how God is working to answer prayer.

Consistency is important. I long ago left behind the “works attitude” toward spending time with God. However, I do run the danger of exercising too much freedom and not being consistent enough. Take time, even if it’s not much time, and just do it.

The most important principle here is to purposefully reflect on your personal time with the Lord. Don’t just go through the motions.

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Simple Steps for Eternal Consequences

May 10th, 2008  by Blas, Assistant Editor

This is a list of 12 things anybody can do to get started on building their heart for the world’s people. I have used this list at various speaking engagements when people say, “I am not ready to actually go, what can I do to get started?”

- Ted

1. Personally “adopt” a country or people group

• Be an expert on one country or people group
• Prepare a one-page overview of this country for others to pray through
• Discover mission agencies, if any, that are working there – pray for them
• Share your burden for this country or people group with others

2. Read books about missionaries and missionary efforts

• “Peace Child” by Don Richardson
• “Lords of the Earth” by Don Richardson
• “Shadow of the Almighty” by Jim Elliot
• “Bruchko” by Bruce Olsen

3. Befriend Internationals

• If you are a student, meet them on campus
• Invite an international to Christmas,
• Thanksgiving, or some other holiday
• Help settle an immigrant to Canada
• Invite a foreign student to live with you

4. Become active in your church’s missionary programs

• Learn the names of your church’s missionaries
• Host a missionary family who is visiting (for dinner or longer!)
• Request newsletter from your church’s missionaries – pray!
• Join the missions committee

5. Keep the world in front of you day to day

• Put a world map up at your workplace
• Tape another one to your bathroom mirror
• Tape a small map into your Bible
• Put a small globe on your desk at work. Be creative!

6. Study the world

• Study the Bible looking for God’s heart for the world’s people Genesis 12:1-3
• Can you name the countries of the world? How about their capitols?
• What is the country known for?
• What is the spiritual condition of each country?

7. Become a consumer of World News

• Read it on the internet
• Watch it on TV
• Listen to it on the radio
• Decipher the “story behind the story” for the Kingdom of God –
• Start a prayer list from headlines

8. Systematically pray for the world

• Get Operation World and pray for one country a day
• Get on one email list which highlights global prayer needs
• • Find someone who will hold you accountable
• Cover the world in prayer—Block out a country with a highlighter each time you pray for it

9. Personally adopt a missionary

• Learn all you can about their country and people group
• Write them regularly – even if they don’t respond
• Remember their birthdays and anniversaries, send a care package
• Pray for them daily

10. Give

• Give regularly
• Give sacrificially
• Give with a plan
• Give strategically

11. Go short term

• Don’t make excuses—make plans: virtually everybody can go at least once in their lifetime
• Don’t go where there are many Christians: go to the unreached
• Don’t go alone: visit a team who can follow-up on your efforts
• Don’t go as a tourist: go as a learner—adapt to their culture

12. Go long term

• Make yourself available for God to open or close the door
• Take the course “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement”
• Contact missions agencies and ask about opportunities
• Tell your pastor about your desire

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Posted in Church, Missions Inc. | 1 Comment »

Rob Farnsley - Why I Went

May 2nd, 2008  by Ted

Note: I am introducing a new series entitled “Why I Went.” I am asking people who cashed in the American Dream for a much bigger dream of sacrificial service in the Great Commission. This week I bring you the story of one of my best friends (at least in the other hemisphere - he says I can’t be his best friend in this one), Rob Farnsley. Rob was an apostle to the Bosnians and now works as a mobilizer in the USA.

Looking back over the last 17 years, it is a bit more difficult to remember why I left my life in Fresno, California to join the missionary endeavor. But the first thing I will say is that I DO NOT REGRET IT AND I AM NOT SORRY!

I was in my mid-40’s, very involved as a layman in my church. I was fulfilled and happy and productive, discipling several men and enjoying my real estate career. But still there was something stirring. I had an opportunity to travel with a retired missionary to his former field of service in Western Borneo. He had gone in the 30’s and literally been the first “white man” in those jungles filled with head hunters. 50 years later, we saw the results of his labor. Churches in many remote villages, reaching out to others, and lots of missionaries carrying on the work. They all knew “Opa.”

I did not have a high opinion of missionaries in those days. But my time in Borneo changed all that. I returned with a huge respect for them and their work. Such qualified and dedicated people. That led to my starting a mission committee in my church, which led to my attending a course called “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement,” where I began to learn about what God was doing in the world. I was amazed. This class had a huge impact on me and led me to want to be involved in the effort to reach those who have the least opportunity to hear the Good News, with whatever time I had left in my life.

So, at age 45, still single, I liquidated all my “stuff,” and off I went. That journey has led me through Indonesia, Virginia, Orlando, Bosnia, Canada, back to Bosnia, and now to Orlando. I have had the privilege of working with and serving some of the best people in the world. I have seen so much of the world that I never thought I would see. My singleness has worked to my advantage in many cases, and probably didn’t help in others. But, I am who I am and as mentioned above I DO NOT REGRET AND AM NOT SORRY I have taken this “road less traveled.” There could not be a better road.

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Posted in Missions Inc. | 1 Comment »

Marketing Genius

April 28th, 2008  by Ted

I received a copy of the “Marketing Genius” book summary this week. I think it has an interesting little snippet about mapping the current environment. They look at the following:

Hot Spots – This is where demand converges and everybody wants to play (for example, all phone companies want to deliver multi-media capabilities).
Cool Places – Trend setting product design and development (currently it is electric cars among the auto industry).
White Spaces – Nobody is there quite yet, but new opportunities will emerge (cashless wallets).
Black Holes – Technology has shifted substantially and obviated some entire market players (iTunes kiling record stores, for example).

What would be some examples in the church and missions world?

Here are a few of my ideas:

Hot Spots: Church planting, multi-site (for mega-churches),
Cool Places: Missional churches, Business as Mission
White Spaces: Truly distributed e-churches? New denominationalism (when mega-churches start their own churches under their “brand.”
Black Holes: Denominations

Are Western missionary structures part of the “Black Hole?” Hard to say. Westerners, like all Christians, will always have an obligation to GO. So, the role will change, but I don’t think it can be dismissed.

Book reference: Marketing Genius by Peter Fisk

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Last Week at LeadNow

April 27th, 2008  by Ted

Do you know about the RightNow Campaign? Great group of people. Check out their website. I was at the LeadNow event they put on last week and took following note.

Here they are… raw and unedited from my Blackberry.

Dan Kimball

Does not see himself as a confrontive person, but sometimes it can happen.

Matthew 2:1-5. No room so they lowered the man down through the ceilings. His friends loved him so much… He was teaching the teens, but they didn’t really get it. “It’s just another story about Jesus.”. Dan started wondering, “Do you guys really understand this?”. But the kids weren’t getting it. So… Let’s go on a roof. They all went up on the roof of the church. They were then with Dan more as they were beginning to see it. Somebody in the immediate area started yelling, “Get them off the roof, it’s not safe, etc.”. Dan realized that if you are really going to make a difference, you have to take risks.

“I could not sit there and let those teenagers hear the story but not take it as a life changing story.”. This was a silly little thing I did, but the point is that we as leaders have to take some risks. Things in church-world are not all “hunky dorey.”. There are so many people today who are outside of the church that we had better take some risks in order to communicate them. I am not suggesting the wrong kind of trouble, but being respectful but change oriented.

Dan didn’t have a Christian upbringing. He bought a Bible and was trying to read. He saw a little church sign advertising something about a Bible study. He peeked in and saw six chairs, half-full with some elderly people. One of them named Stewart, invited him in, and he went. It was very unusual for him. He related the story of his starting to attend this little church and how counter-cultural it was to him (Dan himself was a punk rocker and very counter cultural himself). Over the course the following months Dan was impacted by this very un-hip, un-cool church. Ask yourself: who would have been best suited to reach Dan? We typically wouldl say people that were like him (punk rockers, etc.). That is not who God used. That little church impacted Dan. It was their best effort.

The question is: We do all of this stuff - but underneath it all is the question, “Is it because we are saying, ‘Those outside the church and don’t understand grace, is that the thing that’s underneath all of this?’”. Are we saying, “I am going to do what it takes to communicate in whatever way I can?”.

Somebody did this for every Christian. They took the effort to love on you and share the gospel with you. Why is it all worth it? Because they are worth it.

1. They are worth it because God felt they were worth it and sent His Son into the World.
2. They are worth it because Jesus said that they are worth it and prayed for His followers to be missionally amongst them.
John 17:15 - “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.”
1 Peter 3:15-17. “…be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you…” Apologetics typically is aimed only at the believers - we need to be more with people and not just in the church.
Evangelism is something that we should be - not something that we do.
3. They are worth it because eternity is a long time and there is a reality of heaven and fell we cannot forget.
- There is a lot of great talk about the Kingdom of God on earth, but Dan asked about the reality of the ongoing Kingdom. Do we really grasp the eternal ramifications of eternal existence and the difference between the two realities.

Somebody “Did it for me,” (told me about Jesus), and am I doing it for others? Dan highilghted a number of verses about heaven and hell. It’s hard for him to think about hell, let alone communicate it to others, yet it is what we understand future reality will be for many. He used a number of Greek terms and other New Testament examples. He quoted N.T. Wright to confirm that he does embrace the concept of hell. He quoted Spurgeon, Patrick, Elaine (from Seinfeld), and Hudson Taylor.

Dan re-emphasized the main point: They Are Worth It. Don’t give up because people are worth it. Be willing to take a risk. He told the story of his resignation because he knew that what was happening at the church he was working at just didn’t prioritize those outside the kingdom. The pastor told Dan to start a new church with his heart for the lost and got behind his vision.

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Got a Kindle

April 26th, 2008  by Ted

Yes, I know, early adopter, shameless consumerism, etc. But I love reading. I want to read more. I need to read to live (well, not really).

After some months of thinking about what a terrible price point the Kindle has, I got one. In the past few hours I have purchased a Bible and one book for it, and it’s a joy to read on. I didn’t realize that it had limited web access when I bought it. I might make a Kindle page on my web site to serve up mobile content.

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Podcast Shownotes - Movements

April 24th, 2008  by Ted

World Christian Podcast - Click here to listen

RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS and ACORNS

(Note: This material is largely based on the work of Gerlach and Hines, cited at the end of this article.)

Something that fascinates many people is the idea of movements and how they form, and how they are generated; in fact, I’ve decided to do my Ph. D research in this area. I want to share with you an acronym that I recently developed based on the work with a couple of different researchers that I think has really helped me to articulate in a short amount of time, what makes up a movement. How they happen and what goes into making a movement occur. The acronym is ACORNS. And of course, the idea behind this is that a small little acorn becomes a huge oak tree and often times that’s the case with movements.

A. Affinity Recruitment

Affinity Recruitment is the idea that movements tend to work best when new members are brought into the movement along existing social lines. For example, students who tell other students about Christ -they will grow a movement , a Christian movement across the lines of the affinity group of students. We see affinity recruitment in almost every social movement that’s out there, and I think that religious movements more so than social movements.

C. Common Experience

When we experience something with somebody else, that tends to cement the relationship and pulls us closer together. In the case of religious movements you’ll find that most of them will have some sort of Common Experience that is expressed through the movement . So for example if you are a Christian in one of the Arab countries, that Common Experience typically would be baptism. One could profess faith in Christ but when baptism occurs, then all of a sudden you are identified by your culture and by your peers as a Christian. In that context the Common Experience would be baptism. Some researchers have made the argument that within Pentecostalism, it is the similar ecstatic experiences that make up the Common Experience that makes it most important.

O. Opposition

Sometimes the Opposition may not be significant. One researcher studied Pentecostal movements in a midwestern city and he pointed to the opposition that these Christians face from other Christians because of their theology. Most of the time the Opposition that we are talking about would be more along the lines that we see in China, where it is directly against the religious movement, not a particular practice within that movement. In any case, most of the major religions make room for Opposition as a proof of their validity.

R. Revolutionary Ideology

Certainly, Christianity teaches a Revolutionary Ideology. If you follow Jesus, you become a new person. What’s more revolutionary than that? That’s personal transformation. There’s also the idea of cultural transformation inherent in Christianity. You can also find similar themes in other religions as well.

N. Network Structure

Religious movements do not have a centralized or controlling authority within them. One set of researchers described this network structure as “an acephalous reticulated network structure.” Do you know what a cephalous is? Well reach up there and grab for your head because that’s your cephalous. So achepalous means headless or without a head. Reticulated is best thought of when you see the back of the leaf and you see all the veins leading to one common spot. That is a reticulated structure. In other words, the various nodes of a network have some type of interconnection between them. So an achephalous reticulated network structure is common among most religious movements.

S. Spiritual Dynamism

Of all the letters this one may be the most important one. The Spiritual Dynamic that you’d find in most Christian movements is, of course, centered around the person of Christ and the Holy Spirit. I don’t think that there’s any research that’s been done that doesn’t highly emphasize the spiritual character or nature of that particular movement. Whether that would be a “student volunteer movement” (a missions movement from the early 1900’s) or the current expansion of the church in China, or the church in Mongolia, or the Pentecostal movement in the United States, the spiritual element is very important.

So that’s a little acronym for you to think about movements – ACORNS. Affinity Recruitment. Common Experience. Opposition. Revolutionary Ideology and Network Structure. Topped of by perhaps the most important: Spiritual Dynamism.

Endnotes:

Gerlach, L. P., and V. H. Hine. 1968. Five Factors Crucial to the Growth and Spread of a Modern Religious Movement. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 7 (1):23-40.

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I am spending this week…

April 24th, 2008  by Ted

I am spending this week at a couple of conferences. For the past few days I’ve been at the Exponential conference, and tonight I head over to the Lead Now conference. Both of these are in Orlando, and I will let you know some of the things that I’ve been learning about while I’m here. listen

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