This is probably why the apostle Paul depended so heavily on the prayers of the church Family!

Overseas missionaries leave their home churches joyfully, enthusiastically, and with a great deal of encouragement and support from their “Family”. We get to the field, and we look at the great spiritual bondage and poverty around us and, like Jesus in Matthew 9:36, we are “moved with compassion” for the people God has called us to. And we begin to work to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ with full confidence that our Family back home is praying for us. We gratefully receive emails, phone calls and, yes, sometimes letters or packages from people back home who call down God’s power in our lives through prayer. And we regularly report back to those who support us at home so that they can rejoice at the victories God is winning and participate through prayer in the ongoing struggles.

Unfortunately, we become so involved in the ministry around us that we often neglect a vital part of our work which is letting people back home know what’s going on. At first, everything is new and different and fresh and we have many things to report as we see God moving. But after awhile, it becomes our everyday life and many of us find it difficult to describe the same situations over and over again so we stop. That’s our side of the problem.

But there’s another side of the problem, too. Our churches sent us to represent our Lord by extending the Body of Christ from local work into global work. We are still a member of that Body who sent us out, and we desperately need their support. As the saying goes, though, “out of sight, out of mind”. Soon our churches lose sight of the great opportunity God has given them to fully participate in spreading the Good News throughout the world. And the prayer, support and encouragement we once received from them like a thirsty person receives water in the desert, dries up.

When we take a break from the field and return to our home churches, we often find it difficult to connect with the dear Family we left. People don’t seem to know us any more. We feel disconnected and even unnecessary as far as our home church is concerned. The result is that we become emotional and spiritual “orphans” no longer attached to our home churches.

So what can sending churches do to help?

First, find someone in the Family who will be willing to stay in touch with your missionaries. Ask them to be proactive in contacting missionaries you’ve sent out by contacting them regularly even when (and maybe, especially when!) the missionary doesn’t report back.

And PRAY! Be sure your missionaries are listed on your weekly prayer calendars so that their names are , at least weekly, called to the attention of the Body. T. W Hunt in “Disciples Prayer Life” suggests an easy way to remember how to pray for missionaries.

A: Acceptance.
Romans 15:31b records Paul’s request that his service would be “favorably received by the Lord’s people”

B: Boldness
We want to “fearlessly make known the mysteries of the Gospel” just like Paul did in Ephesians 6:19

C: Clarity
Paul wanted to “proclaim the message clearly” as he says in Colossians 4:4. Today’s missionaries need that too!

D: Deliverance
Paul asked for prayer that he would be “kept safe from the unbelievers”. For missionaries in many parts of the world, this is essential!

E: Extension
Pray for us that “God may open a door for our message” (Colossians 4:2-3). Opportunities to share Christ abound in most mission fields, but only God can provide meaningful encounters!

F: Fruitfulness
Oh, how desperately we need and want your prayers “that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly”! (2 Thessalonians 3:1) For many missionaries, converts come slowly. In my part of the world, the statistics show that a person must hear the message THIRTY times before making a decision!

And, so, we pray as Jesus instructed us in Matthew 9:38 for “workers” to come into the harvest field. In addition to praying for missionaries, you can support us by coming to the field we work in day after day and participating in evangelistic outreach that’s appropriate in the culture we serve. Every time a Christian comes from overseas into my city, I thank God that He has sent yet another “worker” into the harvest field He’s given me to work in.

Please don’t miss the opportunity God has given you to serve, through prayer and encouragement, alongside the missionaries you have sent out from your church! We need you to help us increase God’s harvest and finish the race well!

Written by Becky, a Skybridge member living in Asia.

In 2008, Pastor Nathan and his family felt a calling from God to plant a church in a metropolitan area to reach young adults and families with the Gospel message.  In 2010, a team of 28 other people caught the vision to “Spark a Revolution of Life Change through Jesus”.  They left their jobs, graduated college, and moved from all over the Southeast and even as far as Naples, Italy to all land in Winston-Salem, NC.  The official launch happened in Feb. of 2011 and the church was called REVO.

Members of REVO church involved in a community project

REVO church wanted to be missional from day one.  Ingraining the missional heart of God into His sent community of believers.  One of the ways we gauge our sentness, or missional DNA, is to measure how much time we spend in the community.  In 2011, REVO church accumulated over 6,500 volunteer hours! Adopting a scorecard that focused on how we as a church spent our time in the community was crucial for developing a foundation for local missions and a compassionate heart for our city.

At just over a year old, REVO church is also committed to bringing the Gospel to the Nations.  The commandment and responsibility to take the Gospel to the Nations in the Great Commission was given to the local church, as the sent missionary, with the understanding that the timeline was “both…and”.  Not, “first local…then 5 years later International”.  That’s why in June of 2012, REVO church will be taking its first vision trip to a closed communist country to partner with a team of national church planters with the intention of a long-term partnership.

Another way we hope to accomplish the task of getting the Gospel to the Nations is by being a sending church.  Meaning that we will continually be devoted to sending out our best people to go and live cross-culturally in order to share the Gospel with those who lack access to the Gospel.  Just this past Sunday, (April 15^th) one of our small group leaders sat down with me to tell us that she’s praying through moving to Africa.  God is answering our prayers to use his local church as a launching pad and training ground for the Nations.

It’s my prayer that God would continue to use the local church to live intentional, incarnational lives, realizing that we have inherited the same sentness of Jesus (John 20:21) for His kingdom purpose of getting the Gospel to all nations.

By Paul Davidson

You can check out their church here: www.discoverrevo.com

What does sixteen:fifteen stand for? Why did you create it?

16:15 is named after the Great Commission reference found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 16, verse 15.  We created the ministry in response to a growing wave of local churches across America who were desiring to move away from simply being request driven in missions to becoming more strategy driven.  For the last 15 years, wherever I have traveled, I have encountered churches that are no longer content to serve only in support roles in global missions, they want to be actively and  personally involved.  I guess you could say that we launched the ministry in response to something we saw the Holy Spirit doing, namely, awakening churches to their God-ordained role in finishing the Great Commission task given by Christ.

What do you do at 16:15? We do church missions coaching.  In a nutshell we help churches unleash their missions power and potential to reach the nations by coaching them into a strategic missions focus that fulfills the Biblical missions mandate while taking into account their unique gifts, talents and passions as local bodies of Christ. We call the coaching process 3-D, which stands for DISCOVER – DESIGN -DEPLOY, this also carries with it the idea that the coaching process will help a church bring her unique missions vision to life.  The process is highly personalized because we have a conviction that every church is unique, therefore an endemic process is required to effectively mobilize her people and deploy her vision.  This is not “open package, mix ingredients” mobilization.

In what ways has God used you and 16:15 for kingdom impact?

The impact, by God’s grace has been truly more than we could have imagined.  Let me give you some “before mission coaching and after missions coaching” highlights that churches have experienced:

Missions Approach Before Coaching: Shotgun
Missions Approach After Coaching: Focused and strategic

Church Leadership Before Coaching: No common vision for missions
Church Leadership After Coaching: Unified vision for missions

Short-term Missions Before Coaching: Reactive, random
Short-term Missions After Coaching:  Deliberate and part of larger missions vision

Understanding of and involvement in missions Before Coaching: Minimal and marginalized
Understanding of involvement in missions After Coaching: Significant and church-wide

It is also not uncommon to see missions giving grow exponentially.  When a missions vision is clear, heart-grabbing and it allows for church members to participate in it, they are compelled to be a part of it.  And the best kingdom impact I can share is how God is using churches mobilized through the mission coaching process to shine the light of Christ among hidden, forgotten and marginalized peoples all across the planet.

How do you work with/come alongside churches?  The process I described above usually occurs over a 5-9 month period of time but because it is tailored to each church, this can vary.  Typically there is a coaching workshop every 4-6 weeks during the 5-9 month period.  We also assist churches during the implementation phase of their missions vision as they work to bring that vision to life in partnership with carefully selected, like-minded, and synergistic missions agencies and/or churches.  So we remain engaged and available to assist even after the intensive portion of the coaching has tapered off.

For more information about Sixteen:Fifteen check out their site at www.1615.org

One of the thoughts that I had was this. “I was more concerned about the production of our new church than I was  about the reproduction of disciples.”

This comes from some reflections that I have had over the last months in speaking and teaching in various venues. I feel that when I was planting churches here in the states back in the BIG 90′s that I became quite proficient at planting church services. Sunday came around every 7 days and we had lots to do in order to pull a Sunday service off. I wanted the production to be excellent.

The problem with that is that the Great Commission does not say go out and plant churches services.

It says: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28.

Sometimes we get far too worried about the church plant and forget a couple of things that are important on the front end.

Planting the Gospel

Making Disciples who make disciples

I believe when these two elements occur healthy churches emerge (church planting).

Here are some samples.

Mexicans, Chinese, Indians, Peruvians, Guatemalans, Ecuadorians, Iranians, Algerians, Moroccans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Nigerians, Ivorians, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Karen and Chin.

What is so cool about this list? These are not missionaries sent off to a foreign land. These are people here in the states being salt and light and sharing the gospel with the peoples of the world next door. I was blown away by the list and humbled to be amongst people like that. I am praying for them this week. Praying for the opportunities that they will have. Praying that more people will catch that vision.

We often look at the progression of the Great Commission in Acts 1:8 ESV

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

In today’s world the Great Commission is HERE and THERE.  A church has the nations in their neighborhood but at the same time they need to go to the nations. One does not exclude the other.

A couple of weeks ago we visited a church in Knoxville that I was quite impressed with.  Parker’s cousin goes to this church and he wanted to attend that Sunday so we could see him. As the pastor came up during the middle of the service for a time of prayer he started talking about another church in the area.  He said this week we are praying for …..

He goes on to say … “this church really ministers in the community. They love Jesus and they proclaim the Gospel.”

He described the church for a moment or two and then said let’s pray for them today and pray God will continue to use them in some great ways in the city. I found this to be quite refreshing to go to a church to learn about another church and pray for them. Sometimes I think back where I was much more concerned about the success of the church I was planting than another one just down the street.

I would pray more for other churches and find ways to work together in mission.

more soon.

He asked me a question the other day that I am putting some thought into. He said: Let’s say you were wanting to plant another church in the states.

What would that look like now?

What would be different from when you planted churches in the 90′s here?

How would you go about doing this?

I believe a lot has changed in the culture here. So I would have to be a learner.

I know I would pray a lot and get a ton of people praying with us.

I know I would learn as much as I could about the place we were feeling called to plant.

I would move into that area.

I would start figuring out the cultural differences between myself and the community and start navigating through them. I am sort of odd in that I am from the South but have spent the last ten years in Western Europe.  No comments about me being odd. smile.

I think would try to find some sort of regular  job in that community even if it were part-time.

I would try to find ways to serve that community by joining existing groups doing just that.

To me those are base lines and not by a long shot  a complete list.

One big thing that I would change is this. I was much more concerned with our Sunday Services than anything else. As a result I would put much more effort into making global disciples instead of having a really good Sunday service. What that would look like I do not know for certain but I have some ideas.

Those are some initial thoughts.  Maybe I will have some more. I hope so. It is a big question. It is a daunting task to plant a church. I am so encouraged my so many people these days planting churches here. I would learn from them for sure.

Peace

We will be releasing some blog posts and videos today on www.edstetzer.com and www.theupstreamcollective.org. I hope you will take a look at these short clips to get a sense of our trip.

I wanted to write a short thought this morning about something from scripture that hit me. I am reading a lot these days from the epistles of Paul and the book of Acts since we were traveling where the action was happening.

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples. Acts 19:1

I think I have always admired Paul’s missionary efforts. We read about Paul preaching the gospel. We read about him discipling the disciples. We think about his travels. Believe me that in itself takes effort in that part of the world. It was hard enough in a bus. I could not imagine what it would be like in his day. We read his letters challenging the congregations. We see him interact with his sending church at Antioch. We watch him as he starts new churches.

Another aspect that I think is important about his work was the way he encouraged workers and believers in those churches.

He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece. Acts 20:2

This is so vital for the worker and the new believer.  I have heard there could be as few as 3000 Christ followers in Turkey. If that number is correct it is staggering.

Do you think workers  could feel isolated?  Do you think that praying with them and speaking words of encouragement can lift their spirits and help them in their journey? I would say definitely.

I believe we need to encourage workers no matter whether it is where we call home or 5000 miles away when we have opportunities. I know it can make a difference.

I arrived in time to go to church this Easter Sunday morning. I went to the gathering at www.westpointchurch.org on the outskirts of Orlando. It was the first time that I have been able to worship there with my friends. I have known the co-pastor Jason Dukes for some time. I think a lot of him. He is top shelf. You also will want to read his book called “Live Sent”. Worth the read.

Westpoint is all about being the  church and living sent.

They live up to it from all that I can observe. I love seeing churches that are so concerned with thier community and even the other churches in their community. This morning I heard several examples of how they were trying to be a blessing to other churches in their city. Helping those churches with their outreach type events. Wow.

I also heard of examples of people in the church who are truly living sent. Maybe it is in their local business or profession or perhaps it is moving overseas but they empower their people to live outwardly focused lives.

Refreshing.

He is Risen.

More Soon from Orlando

I recall in my church planting days in the states that a big discussion amongst the launch team was finding that perfect meeting space.

After all most of the “pre-launch” experts would say.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

So we would look at such things like the demographics, traffic patterns,  access to parking, child care facilities, worship center capacity, media possibilities, etc… In some cases you could argue that those were important to our target audience and our model of church plant which was geared to the gathering.

When we moved overseas and I was personally challenged to process the role of reproducibility and recognized that often the model we choose can prevent us from reproducing it. For example, I once heard a person say here in Europe that it takes 500,000 euros to start a church. Does it? Then we could be in trouble. The speaker was pushed a little on this and it came down to 150,000.

On the other hand I remember being in a place where we looked at meeting in our home.

It is a much cheaper solution. However, is it a good idea for a house church to meet in a cross cultural worker’s home?  Does that answer the reproducible question? What I do remember is a conversation with a national who told me it was fine if I wanted to invite him and his family to my house but he could never invite his friends to my house because after all it was my house. It was my place to invite others not his. Ummm.

That is when we decided trying to find ways to meet in third places could be the best route for our strategy. The first place is a person’s home and the second place is the marketplace and the third place is a neutral place. It is the place where the people whom you are being sent can meet.

Just some thoughts on meeting spaces.  And yours?