Archive for March, 2010
Posted on March 30, 2010 - by Larry - 1 Comment
Listening
My last post listed a few books that I am reading. As I mentioned I always want to be a learner. The day after I wrote that post I read a tweet from a good friend of mine by the name of Steve Miller. For you 40 somethings he is not the guy from the Steve Miller Band. Here is his tweet.
“The best way to engage people is to listen. Problem is most of the time “we aren’t listening, we’re reloading.”
I did not like his tweet. I did not push the unfollow button though. I did not like it because it hit too close to home. Am I really trying to engage people in conversation or am I just wanting them to listen to me or read my ideas or posts or tweets?
I am finding for me that I have the tendency to talk more than to listen, to write more than I read and to want to lead more than to follow. This usually underscores how important that I think I am. This is a problem. So just to drive the point home for me this morning as I was reading in the book of John.
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. John 7:18 ESV
I need to listen more.
I need to read more.
Thanks Steve for your tweet.
Thank you Lord Jesus for your words.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Posted on March 28, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Learning
Here are a few books that I am reading right now. I try to read a variety of books. I would like to say that I am a learner. I can definitely say I have a lot to learn. I am listing a few books below. What are some good books that you are reading?
Missional
Movements that Change the World by Steve Addison
Discipleship
Untamed by Alan and Debra Hirsch
Detox for the Overly Religious by David Putman. Just finished this book and highly recommend it. Good read.
Leadership
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, by John Piper
Culture
Leading with Cultural Intelligence by David Livermore
God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe’s Religious Crisis by Phillip Jenkins
About Partnerships:
Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-term Missions with Cultural Intelligence by David A. Livermore. You can also also check out his site here.
Catalyst Services is a great resource that I have found helpful in thinking through partnership ideas and helping equip partnerships in missions. You can sign up for the their free newsletter that is very helpful.
Posted on March 22, 2010 - by Larry - 3 Comments
The Second Setting
A few months ago I was doing some training at a conference for new cross cultural workers here in Europe. One of the presenters was Jennie Hatchel who works on a team focusing on the Roma people group. You should check out the cool stuff they do here.
She did a presentation entitled “The Second Setting”. As I sat there and listened it really made sense to me. I asked her if she would be willing to write up this idea and you will find it below. As you think about being salt and light in intentional ways this idea should be kept in mind. Enjoy and thank you Jennie for writing it.
In the cloakroom of my children’s preschool, I followed the cultural custom of changing them from their street clothes to their school clothes. As each new parent and child entered, they would say “Good day” to the group, but the only other noise in the room was the hushed whispering of parents encouraging their children to hurry along.
After several weeks I had exchanged little more than a few words about the weather with some of the parents. My frustration grew over my lack of developing relationships. Then, one day while shopping in our neighborhood grocery store, I noticed one of the mothers from my son’s class. I said, “hello” and to my surprise she began to talk. Within a few minutes we had an invitation to visit in her home.
I had a similar experience with the parents at my children’s ice skating class. While we all spent the hour that the children skated huddled around the edge of the rink trying to stay warm, there was very little interaction among the parents. When I spoke to someone, they were polite enough, but their replies were short and I felt like I was really prying if I tried to get to know someone. After about a month of lessons I bumped into one of the ice skating moms downtown. She was friendly and very open. She spoke more to me that day than in the whole previous month of lessons.
It appeared that people were more comfortable with me once they saw me in a second setting. I began observing my interactions with others. On many occasions I noted that others were more open with me when they had seen me in another setting. I mentioned this observation to my husband and he shared similar experiences. He began calling it my “theory of the second setting”.
In the past few years I have been trying to take advantage of this “theory of the second setting”. When I notice someone from my exercise class waiting on the tram stop, I will cross the street in order to “bump into” them. If I see someone at the post offi
ce that I recognize from my child’s swimming class, I’ll chose the longer line just to wait with them and have an opportunity to visit. If I notice someone in the grocery store that walks their dog in the same park as we do, I’ll skip several aisles just for a chance to run into them.
While some of my difficulty in initiating relationships was cultural, the idea that seeing someone in a second setting provides more of an opportunity to develop relationships has cross-cultural relevance. The more someone is exposed to me, the more familiar I become to them. The more familiar I am to them, the more comfortable they are with me. The more comfortable they are with me, the greater likelihood of us developing a relationship.
Have you noticed people are more likely to open up to you when you see them in a “second setting”?
Posted on March 17, 2010 - by Larry - 1 Comment
Stick-to-it-tive-ness
Stick-to-it-tive-ness
I am not sure if that is the way you spell that word but hopefully you catch the idea.
resilience
perseverance
Hanging in the there
These are all important words in life and in also applies in leadership. If we are going to be people who influence others then “Stick-to-it-tive-ness is important.
Why? You will face failure. You will face discouragement. You will face disappointment.
I am a jogger (not a runner). Honestly I prefer what I call “out and backs”. My running partner is a “looper”. He loves to run up mountains and in a big loop. He also loves to start out with a hill and some how or another end up with a hill but that is another post. grin.
I think the reason I am a “out and backer” is that for me I have learned if I can run out a certain distance then I have to get back to my starting point and I am less likely to give up. It works for me.
In life it is not always that easy. As we face the tough times we often are given an option to quit. I am thankful for many things my parents taught me. The lesson came in High School. I wanted to quit the basketball team. The picture is not of me but of one of my favorites players. His name is Chris Mullins and played for St. Johns. Notice those shorts! I was a bench warmer that year. I did not like practice and I hated running “suicides” or sprints at the end of the practice. So I told my parents that I wanted to quit during the season and my dad told me that was not an option. End of story. I stuck it out.
Scripture tells us that perseverance and faith are tied together.
“because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance”. James 1:3
I think people watch leaders a lot. They take notes. They are watching how leaders act and react. They watch to see if a leader drops out or if they stick to it.
Posted on March 15, 2010 - by Larry - 1 Comment
I don’t want to…
Monday, March 15 – Before My Lunchtime run
I am sore.
I am too tired.
I have too many emails in my inbox.
It is raining.
I don’t want to run.
It is Monday !
I did not charge my ipod!
My running partner is out of town and will not know until later that I skipped.
After the run
Why is it that when I do not want to run but then I do it usually turns out to be a great run and I feel so much better after wards? Not to mention the sun is now shining.
What can I learn from this?
Mostly is that I need to run! It is good for me.
Maybe after I catch my breath and rest a little I will write a post on perseverance.
Posted on March 12, 2010 - by Larry - 2 Comments
eXtreme Walk
One of my best friends during our time in Spain was a guy by the name of Paul Cox. We normally got together for coffee once a week to share life, pray for one another and hold each other accountable. He is up to some new things lately. I recently talked to him about eXtreme Walk. Check it out!
What exactly is eXtreme Walk?
eXtreme Walk is a formative 10 month cross-cultural church multiplication
and discipleship experience.
Formative: Our prayer is that the Lord will form you in new and immense ways to be totally His. We hope to inspire you to catch a global and local vision for making disciples and multiplying churches. We want you to be malleable clay in the hands of the Lord.
10 month: The first three months are devoted to intense language
acquisition and culture learning on location. The following seven months
are for you to learn from local church planters to multiply local
churches. This is a spiritual, relational, and incarnational ministry.
Cross-cultural: Through eXtreme Walk, you are sent and received into a
community with different values, customs, and worldviews. This community
has different strengths and weaknesses than your native community. Church
multiplication: Through evangelism and discipleship, eXtreme Walkers work
to start worshipping bodies of believers that start other worshipping
bodies of believers.
Discipleship: In eXtreme Walk you will both learn (from local church
multipliers) and teach (persons in the local community). This will provide
you with multiple opportunities to both grow as a disciple as well as make
disciples. We hope you will give prayerful consideration to leading other
young missionaries on eXtreme Walk after you return from your first
eXtreme Walk experience.
Experience: Learn hands on by observing and doing, with the freedom to
learn from failure. This takes initiative, responsibility, humility, and a continual focus on Jesus.
What will I do on XW?
eXtreme Walk is an opportunity to learn from and serve alongside local
church planters. What you do will involve being trained by the locals to
share the gospel and make disciples in their culture, language, and
community. Sharing the gospel can take many different forms – all of which
depend on prayer for effectiveness. Embodying Christ’s love along with
local Christians is a major part of this. You will live among the people
you seek to reach with the wholeness that Jesus brings. Making disciples
involves investing yourself – your time, your energy, your life – into a
few faithful, available, and teachable disciples. Our prayer is for you to
share the gospel extensively and invest yourself intensively in a few
people while the local workers and other missionaries invest in you.
Paul is now the Director of Recruitment for One Mission Society. If you have an interest in eXtreme Walk then he says give him a call at 317.888.3333 or send him an email at pcox@onemissionsociety.org
Posted on March 10, 2010 - by Larry - 1 Comment
The Sending Church – my favs list
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post here about a few observations from my backpacking trip across Europe last month. I want to write some more on the topic of the importance of a sending church. I feel a lot like a musician that only has a few songs. So this one is a Fav and I sing it a lot. I really believe it to be important.
I receive quite a few emails or calls from people who are interested in leaving their home culture and moving to a new one either in the marketplace or with a mission sending organization. I really love this part of my ministry. I celebrate what God may be doing in their life. I think I always end up talking about their “sending” church.
We often hear a compelling message in a worship service, read a text from scripture or even sense in our prayers a calling to go overseas. All of these are ways that I believe the Lord speaks to us regarding missions. I also believe one’s call is in the context of community.
As I read Acts 13 I see a church that was devoted to the Word, prayer, fellowship and the Lord’s Supper as Acts 2 describes. Out of this church we see the Holy Spirit calling out Saul and Barnabas. Next we see the church returning to prayer and fasting and then they laid hands on them and sent them out. What happened between the time they heard from the Holy Spirit and sent them on their way? The Bible says they prayed and fasted again. Could the church been affirming this call on their lives? I believe conversations were taking place in the church about their sending Saul and Barnabas. We do not get all of the details other than they prayed and fasted and then sent them on their way. But we do see throughout Acts a relationship with the church at Antioch with their missionaries. In fact after they went on their trip they came back for a time with the church (Acts 14:27). I believe that the importance of having a sending church is paramount to the success of the cross-cultural workers.
Way too often the church has outsourced this to mission agencies or denominational entities. The Great Commission was given to the church. This is true in their church planting strategies locally and internationally. The church needs to have an active role in the sending of their people.
The sending church can help the cross-cultural worker in many ways:
Discipleship
Accountability
Strategic involvement
Logistical support
Member Care (this is the term mission organizations will sometimes use to describe pastoral care or counseling)
Prayer
Ministry needs
I am sure there are more.
The cross-cultural worker sent from a church is in a sense one way that the church can have an incarnational presence on the field.
The reason why I talk to people about this is that I do not want to see them coming overseas without a strong relationship and affirmation from their sending church and I do not want to see that stop once they go on the field. The churches involvement and responsibility does not stop once they physically leave the church and go on their mission.
So if you are a church what process or plan do you have in place to help members serve overseas? How do you stay involved?
If you are a mission organization / network how do you work with sending churches to facilitate a three way partnership ?
If you are an individual or couple and feel a calling overseas how are you involving your home church?
Just some thoughts.
I would love to hear yours?
Posted on March 3, 2010 - by Larry - 3 Comments
Vision
I had a vision the other day that I want to tell you about.
I have been spending some time with Michael Hyatt on his blog about how to create a Life plan. He writes about how we need to write out what we see as our preferred future in several key areas of our life. Your preferred vision is what you want your life or aspect of your life to look like.
Maybe I am in dreamland but still I think it would be cool if I could say this about my work here in Germany.
Here is my preferred future.
I am investing weekly in several national church planters who are starting churches in their communities amongst various people groups. They are also discipling potential church planters in their church plants.
I am working with the national church. I am praying with the pastors of churches in this area. They are helping me know the culture. They are introducing me to other key people. I am helping them by supporting them through prayer and serving them in ways they feel are beneficial. I am trying to influence them regarding discipleship and church planting.
I am working with several other Christian organizations who have ministries in our city. We pray together. We dream together and we find ways where we can work together on projects. We are advocates for one another and we want to see each other succeed.
I am building a network of people who work in the marketplace. These people come from various parts of the world and they are here for often for just a season. They are believers and want to live their lives as salt and light in the marketplace and community. Because the work in the marketplace they have a type of credibility that I do not have. They are untapped resources for most of us. These Skybridge Community workers pray for one another, support one another, work with local ministries and churches. I try to provide some training and equipping for them that will help them live missionally in a cross cultural setting.
I have a few churches from North America that are helping me at various levels.
I have a team of people who pray for our ministry on a weekly basis. Some of these prayer advocates have told me they pray for me daily. I keep them up to speed via email and I have a Facebook group by invitation only that prays for us.
I have a couple of churches who are partnering side by side with me on some projects that I am working on. They provide some strategic resources. They provide our team with some short term teams that help us facilitate the church planting strategy.
I also have a couple of churches and I am always looking for more that will be the missionary in an area or amongst a people group that I cannot be engaged with at this time. I see these churches has self starters, highly motivated and able to implement their strategies in these areas. I work with them. I try to give them support and encouragement. We have good communication.
I wish this was true for my ministry. I do well at some of these areas and I have a lot to do in other areas.
I can tell you it is one of my goals when I look at what my ministry looks like. It is what I am working towards.
