They have  jobs outside the church!

That’s right I am actually hearing more and more church planters who are taking on day jobs. Sure this helps them financial. In a day where finances can be hard to come by working can help them finance their mission. This is much more common today than when I was church planting here in the 90s. I think this can be a good shift in strategies for some.

I not only like this idea in terms of helping with finances but I also think in this day that having a regular job makes more sense to people. I have seen this play out of years in Europe. Many Europeans do not understand why or even how you could rely on supporters to live. If you use the “missionary” word then that word conjures up another set of ideas. But when you have a regular job, you love Jesus and you are you starting a church it may just make more sense. Some of the best missionaries are not missionaries by trade. They simply have regular jobs but live their lives in such a way they are proclaiming the gospel in various ways to people who have never heard.  Some call  this “intentional missional employment”.

When you look at the life and work of the Apostle Paul we see that he was a tent-maker (Acts 18:3) He made tents for a living. Why did he do this? There are several reasons.

First, he did not want to place  unnecessary financial burden on the church. It was a way he could put bread on the table. I realize that Paul also taught a donor support approach as well.

You also can build the case that he did not want to be what was common in that day (1 Cor. 9). There were philosophers who would travel around teaching and making their living off of people listening to them.  Paul did not want to be associated with them. By  being a tent maker he was earning his own way.  I think in some situations tent-making gave him street credibility that helped in gospel proclamation.  For a good paper on this read this from Global Opportunities. It is worth the read.

Sure there are challenges with this approach. If you are a part of a more attractional model where the weekend is very important than you have lots to do to be ready for that. Sundays come around amazingly every 7 days. But even still some of  these guys were from churches who have a big weekend service. They simply choose to have a part time job to help out in their finances and to ease the burden of the church. However, they all have found that this has given them opportunities to share their faith and to naturally be around not yet believers.

Just an idea.

What do you do when you find yourself in a new place?

What does it look like when you know you will only be in that location for one year?

What are the first things you do?

What do you not do?

What does it look like to connect in some sort of local ministry for one year?

What does church involvement  look like for that year?

All of these questions and more are going through my mind. Would love to hear how you have approached this or would approach this.

I want to learn.

I also try to do several things while I am visiting. I hope these can encourage you if you are in a role either paid or volunteer that allows you to travel. I always want to share with my readers what I am learning.

1. Drink the local coffee. (I know you were expecting that one)

2. Eat local food. Go to the local places. However if you are in Spain you must go to McDonald’s and get a “Cafe con Helado”. I think that is McDonalds contextualizing in Spain. smile.

3. Find a way to bless the people you meet on the trip. If you have the chance to meet other Christian workers,  national pastors or church planters pray a blessing over them and their family. This is an unbelievable encouragement to them. Another way to bless people on the trip is to listen to them and their needs and learn about their work.

4. Find a way to be salt and light to the people of that city. Engage in conversations with the people in that city. You may be surprised to find out how many people are interested in spiritual conversations.

5. Write notes to your family while you are away. Posting on Facebook counts as well. One habit that I have started doing is getting a postcard for my mom if I visit a new city. My parents have been extremely supportive of us over the years living overseas. I want to show them how much I appreciate that and they love getting a postcard from a new place.

6. Always pick something up locally for your wife and children.  Even if it is something very small they will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

7. Try to learn a few words to use in that country. Plenty of sites that can help you learn phrases in French, Spanish, German, Russian, etc.. We have always had a family goal to try to speak their language, be humble and have a smile on our face. We feel these three things are very important crossing cultures.

8. Go on a prayer walk while you are there. I like doing this the last day since I know a little more about the place and needs by then.

9. Go into a local church building to observe and pray. In Europe I love going into the large older churches.

10. Okay, you do need to see a new site or two while you are there. Plan some fun.

Overall I would say be a learner as your travel.

I hope to write more on this idea of being an intentional traveler. So many people these days travel as a part of their life.  We need to live as salt and light anywhere we end up.

More soon.

I If had one  “do over” in my church planting ministry career it would be for the new churches that I have been a part of to become globally oriented from day one. I feel I was far too concerned about putting on a good church service and not making reproducing disciples that had a heart for the world.  When we started The Upstream Collective almost three years ago one of our goals was  to influence the mission conversation amongst these younger churches. We want to help these  new churches to think and act as a missionary.  God has given us some great opportunities to equip these churches with some basic missionary skills that will actually be helpful as they plant churches here or abroad. We want these churches to think and act as a missionary. We want to see these churches become sending churches like we find in Acts 13 that send people all over the world.

I feel at times  churches can become content with simply outsourcing missions.  As a pastor friend of mine says: mission organizations often want them to pray, pay and get out of the way.”  I think that day is over. I believe there has been an awakening in the church today where mission can no longer be outsourced but be an integral part of the church. It is great  to be  just a little part of that conversation.

Yesterday we launched our first ebook at www.themissionbook.com I hope you will read it. The chapters are short but very applicable to mission. Even more importantly we hope you will consider writing a chapter. It is a book that is not yet finished. It is missing your voice and your story.

I pray

I observe

I connect

The second part of our strategy is vital. Here is a little about our context.

The work we are praying to start is in a nearby village. There is no known evangelical church in this village but there are believers who live there that travel to other villages or cities for church. The project organizers started putting together times where those interested can simply come to  pray and share about how God is moving in this village.  We talk about what we are learning from our prayer walk time and sharing how we see God moving.  Our third meeting was this past week and we had a number of people come with quite a few new attendees. These people are from several different churches all with a desire to see God work there. I believe that the unity of believers is an important factor in this context. I believe it is simply a very good thing when people from various churches and organizations come together to pray. Sure there will be differences in theology and even in methodology but that should not keep us from praying together. Unity can be powerful.

I love them. It is one of the great parts of being at home. It is good to take a break in the day.

So I love running at noon and I normally eat a lighter lunch which is important for me.

When I run by myself I always have these ideas that come to me in the middle of my run.   I  find running to be one of my most creative times.  So as soon as I ran in the door I started writing out all of those ideas so I would not forgot them. I think I remembered 4 out of 10.

Where are those other six ideas?

Hopefully they will come back to me.

Here was a thought. What if there was an app for your ipod that recorded your thoughts / ideas while you run. I know Evernote can record a voice memo on my iphone.  My problem is that I am not coordinated enough to switch back and forth to the app. If I stop and do it then I may decide not to run any further. I do not restart very well.

But seriously, how do you capture good ideas when you are doing something else?

BUT since this is part of my series on developing partnerships with churches I need to transition to this topic. Here it goes!

I also think that every missionary deserves a loving and caring church that they can call home. Some of my readers may think this is a no-brainer. However,  you would be surprised how many workers do not have a place they can truly call home. They do not have a church that supports them by:

Praying for them in specific ways

Giving care to them

Holding them accountable spiritually and strategically

Supporting them

Being involved in their ministry on the field

Simply talking to them and being interested in their work.

These six things can make such a difference in the life and total health of a missionary and his / her family. In many ways these workers need a church who will adopt them and call them their own. I know this may sound silly but I do not think so. This is my big question to every potential worker coming on the field: “Do you have a sending church and how are they involved in sending you?” My question to churches who are sending out someone is “how do you plan on staying in touch and how to you plan on supporting them in ways other than financial assistance?”  Churches please do not simply outsource this to mission agencies. Most missionaries want your involvement even after they are on the field.  I would add that we all need your involvement.

As I have written before about Acts 13 and beyond there was a connection to Paul and the sending church Antioch. There was an on-going relationship. This is vital to the life of the worker in my opinion. Missionaries need more than money!

I am not going to start an adoption agency for workers but if you need help with this let me know. If you are a church looking for a person to adopt or if you are a worker needing a church to adopt you please let someone know.

I will do all I can. Feel free to email me at larry@theupstreamcollective.org

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 office 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”?

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.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go teach on the book of Acts at the Bible Seminary of Bonn. I always enjoy my time there. The students have such a great passion for the Lord and to serve Him.

This week I want to introduce you to a friend of mine here in Germany. Mark Wagner National training strategist for the IMB in Germany Austria and Switzerland. I have known Mark for almost 8 years now. We have worked together at various levels. Mark would be very interested in connecting with some churches that would commit to a partnership here in Germany. You can contact him at wmwagner125@aol.com.

I hope you will take 3 minutes to look at this video that I put together of my time at the seminary. (I need to give a disclaimer that I am not the best videographer and editor but I am giving it a shot.)

You will also meet on this short video Andy Wiebke who works at the seminary. I hope if you are a pastor reading this blog or watching this video that you would consider contacting me about this idea. He would love to see some pastors and church planters that would mentor / coach a student.

If you have an interest in this please email me at larry@theupstreamcollective.org