Author Archive
Posted on March 10, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
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.
Posted on February 27, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Church Planters in Kiev
I went to Kiev Ukraine this past December and met some great people. A month or so ago I wrote about how a church planting book by Ed Stetzer is used at a seminary in the Ukraine. Today I would like to tell you a little more about that school. The school would like to find a few churches that would be interested in partnering with them in their church planting program. If you have a heart for training church planters then this may be a great place for your church.
The Church Planting Program at Kiev Theological Seminary continues
expand. The program has 31 men at the present time, the students have
planted 25 churches, and they have graduated three classes. Our students
come from Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. They have or have had men
from Belarus, Russia, Moldova, Lithuania and Azerbaijan. Next year they will
will be getting some more students from Russia through the cooperative
efforts of an imb worker who is wanting a group of students trained as church planters.
The KTS program is intentional about planting churches. The men must
start a church or be on a team that starts a church before they
graduate from the seminary. The school does not want them to just study church
planting and not get an opportunity to put it into practice.
Church Planting courses are taught in a modular format. Students
come for two weeks and go back to the field where they put into
practice what they are learning in class. This way the men are able to
plant the churches in their own communities and they have the training
and support of the Church Planting Program… a strategic goal for
expanding the Kingdom.
If you have an interest in this please let me know at larry@theupstreamcollective.org. I would be glad to introduce you to the director Joel Ragains or visit his site here.
Posted on February 19, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
7 reasons why I like working with young churches
I am headed to Atlanta to be with my good friend David Putman at ChurchPlanters.com Velocity conference. So I am on the road again.
I always love going to MountainLake church near Atlanta. If you are attending this conference be sure to look me up. I would love to see you.
This past week while leading our Upstream Jet Set tour across Europe I was able to think about some of the reasons why I like to work with young churches or church plants on the field. This does not mean I do not like working with other churches. I am just making some observations about why new churches can be great in missions. I think they make great partnerships for cross cultural church planting teams, working along side a national churches, or a church plant on the field.
So here is my list.
1. They are self starters. Since they are church plants they usually know how to get things started. They live in a constant state of start up mode. They know how to start something out of nothing.
2. They can live with ambiguity. This is life on the mission field. We rarely know what lies ahead on the field. This is how church planters roll. They are fluid.
3. They are explorers. They love to take a look into the unknown. Their exploring often leads to creative ideas for missional living.
4. They have lots of energy. They work very hard. They do whatever it takes to get the job done.
5. They are bold in their witness. I have noticed that most of these planters and young churches actively find ways to share their faith in natural ways.
6. They are practical. They have a keen sense of what works and they move towards that end.
7. They are risk takers. They do not like to fail but they are not afraid of failing or taking a chance.
Posted on February 17, 2010 - by Larry - 3 Comments
Owning Up
When do you say: “oops, I made a mistake” ?
Are you able to say ” I am sorry”?
I think transparency is important as a leader. I will never forget the time as a young church planter I was sitting in the living room of some potential core group members. They were attending our meetings and I felt we were connecting fairly well. Then the husband said “you know Larry one thing that bothers us is that you do not seem to have a hard time admitting that you made a mistake. You will be so transparent in front of people. We think a pastor should be above that.” They wanted a pastor who was perfect and I guess who was able to display that perfection on stage. Obviously they did not stick around. I was too imperfect.
I think in leadership we can become tentative on how much we share and admitting error. If you admit a mistake will you be held accountable for that mistake? You should be held accountable. What will that cost you?
I have for a long time had an interest in corporate apologies.
How often does a corporation admit that they made a mistake? What happens when they do?
How often does a church or church leader admit they probably should have gone a different direction on a ministry?
How often does a team leader or pastor say “you know I messed this up. Can we start over and let’s do it different this time?”
It seems much simpler to just keep going down the road and hoping the next turn will be better and that things will smooth out or correct itself. After all we would not want to give the impression that we are perfect. We could be afraid of the consequences. I have found that most of the time that people will hang with a leader who is transparent and who owns up to his/her humanity.
Posted on February 12, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Our excursion into Montpellier
On Thursday we traveled from Montpellier to Paris. We had an awesome day in Montpellier. We split up into two’s and explored the city yesterday afternoon.
Here are some quick take aways about our time there.
We definitely just began to scratch the surface but I think we did well considering the amount of time we were in the city. When you split into twos then you can accomplish more for sure.
We prayed as we went about the city.
We all found good cafes to do some observing. As usual that is important to me.
Several in the group had great conversations with people in the city to learn about the people and the city. Trying to strike up conversations is a must. There are usually one or two in a group that seem to do very well at this type of information gathering.
We found good maps at the train station. These were helpful to get us to the hotel on foot. We were lucky this time and stayed a hotel within 1 kilometer.
We talked to the hotel clerk to find out some things about the city and where to start looking at certain sections of the city. In a large city it is hard to see it all so we asked about the university that was there and decided to look and be around that section. We have noticed on this trip from ministries such as The Hamburg Project and The Berlin Project that they do well focusing on a part of the city and then developing their ministries and church plants from there.
We also observed several “nodes” or gathering points for people and traffic. This city was unique that in the center there is no car traffic only foot traffic, bikes and trams. So you have this entire city center that is full of life. Large open areas for people to gather.
Several in the group did some quick Internet research on the city. They found out that nearly a third of the people were 25 and younger. The city has that kind of energy and feel to it.
We went into shops. Strategic consumerism is another place to gain information. Local shop owners can tell you a lot about their city.
We explored the boundaries of the city center and looked for major landmarks. We did not notice any evangelical churches and a fewer amount of Catholic churches compared to other cities. Granted we did not see it all but explored only in the city center. I would want to do more research in this area for sure. What is the current status of the gospel there?
The next morning we went out again. We sipped on coffee and talked about the things that we learned together. Debriefing our time together and taking some notes about what we learned is helpful for the future.
I must say this type of activity is one of my favorite parts of these trips. I love going into a place and start trying to figure out the language, culture, people. I love dreaming with others about what work could look like here and how to engage the people with the Gospel. I am enjoying my time with this team from the Village Church. All of this team have traveled abroad. Several have lived abroad. You will see a video soon on www.theupstreamcollective.org from a guy by the name of Jason who lives out his life in an area of Dallas that is quite impressive.
I have been thinking some about why I think younger churches should be involved globally. These churches have lots to offer. I will write a post on that soon. I know they are teaching me a lot.
Posted on February 10, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Italy
This was the first time that I have visited Milan and Turino. One thing that we have been talking about as we have traveled south are the similarities and differences of the different cities.
We started our journey in Denmark and now we are in France after visits in Germany and Italy.
We have noticed several things. One particularly obvious thing for me is the language. It was quite amazing in Denmark at the level of English the Danes could speak. As we went to some more diverse areas of the city where immigrants lived we would find some language challenges but when we approached Danish people they usually did very well in English. I still believe long term workers there would need to learn the language to get into the heart language of the people but for a strategic short term teams then the language issues there could be less of a barrier.
As we moved into Hamburg and Berlin we noticed a more diverse culture and less people who could speak English but usually you could get around and talk to people at some level.
When we moved into Italy and France much of this seemed to change for us. I have countless times tried talking to the people in Italy and France in Spanish when they could not understand English. I usually do well at making mistakes in language situations. Some say it is a gift, or a curse. grin.
Two things that stick out to me apart from language issues.
No matter where we have gone as we have talked with nationals and people ministering cross culturally in these areas the consensus is that less than 2 percent of the people are evangelical.
The second part is no matter how hard we try we cannot be cool enough to make it work here. It is a God thing! Only the Lord can open up the hearts of the people here. I pray He will use us on this trip. I pray the Lord will use churches like The Village to engage Europe. I pray for all of my fellow workers in Europe who are day in and day out living out there lives here and dying to self. I know the Lord is faithful and He alone will sustain you and give you opportunities.
Posted on February 7, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Jet Set Trip Weekend
Our jet set trip really should be a planes, trains and automobiles trip. We have used all three today to get from Germany to Italy.
Really impressed with the team from The Berlin Project. This is an initiative of Redeemer in NYC. As we talked with their pastor and listened to his story he has such a heart for that city and is working hard at planting other churches in Berlin. I like church planters that want to plant churches that plant churches. Here is there site but it is in German.
We stopped by Milan this morning on our way to Turino and was able to visit Jason who is a friend of mine who lives there. We should have his video up in the next day or so on our Upstream Blog. He has a great ministry with atheletes in Milan. You will want to check out his video.
Tomorrow we are going to meet with some new contacts here in Turino for us. We will let you know how that goes.
Meanwhile we are going to enjoy at least three great things about Italy:
Espresso
Ice Cream
Food
Posted on February 4, 2010 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Copenhagen Day Three
I am on the train from Copenhagen to Hamburg, Germany. I am reflecting a bit on some conversations that we have had over the last few days. I feel it is quite important as we go into a city to find locals who can inform us about the city and the people who live there. One conversation took place at Cafe Retro in the central part of the city. In this case we were talking with two local believers. One of them told us about the Jante Law.
The Jante Law was an observed form of behavior but put into a set of rules by Danish author Aksel Sandemose in his novel A Fugitive Crosses his tracks.” Wikipedia says that the Jante Law “refers to a pattern of group behavior towards individuals within Scandinavian communities, which negatively portrays and criticizes success and achievement as unworthy and inappropriate”.
Here are the 10 Jante Laws our cultural guides spoke of earlier…
Don’t think that you are special.
Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
Don’t think that you know more than us.
Don’t think that you are more important than us.
Don’t think that you are good at anything.
Don’t laugh at us.
Don’t think that anyone of us cares about you.
Don’t think that you can teach us anything.
If you were living in Denmark how would the Jante law affect the way you live and interact as a new person in the community?
Posted on February 3, 2010 - by Larry - 1 Comment
Copenhagen – Day Two
This week I have been able to spend some time with Grady here in Copenhagen.
Grady is a photographer and his wife is an artist and writer. They both are incredible examples of artists who are living out their lives as salt and light in any community in which they live.
We have had several cups of coffee this week in Copenhagen. You will find a great post that he wrote while here this week here.
I asked him “Why Copenhagen? As I have been here over the last few days his answer makes total sense.
Copenhagen is a city full of artists. They feel a kinship to the arts. They believe that this is a part of the world that as a family they could live long term and really connect with people and have a ministry through a relational context.
I also asked him about where do they desire to live in Copenhagen? He says they are looking for a place that strikes a balance between being close to where artists spend a lot of time such as galleries or cafes and to where as a young family they can develop relationships. Intentionality is important in missional living.
If you are interested in learning more about their ministry you can send an email to info@theupstreamcollective.org
For a look at some of his work please visit my gallery page.
