Is Latin America Still A Mission Field? (by David Sills)

David Sills is the A.P. and Faye Stone Professor of Christian Missions and Cultural Anthropology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, and Director of the Doctor of Missiology program, Director of the International Church Planting program, and Director of Great Commission Ministries. For those of us in Ecuador, David is better known as a former fellow missionary who served alongside us for several years. In one of his blog posts entitled, Latin America: Mission Force, Mission Field David shares some of the tensions facing missionaries and missions organizations serving in Latin America.

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"...This concentrated and extended time in Latin America has shown me a great many things about the state of the church here and the region’s needs, challenges, and opportunities. Reading what much of the missions literature says about Latin America and traveling and ministering here makes me wonder whether we are talking about the same place. So often, Latin America is presented as yesterday’s mission field, a place that is now reached, so missionaries can turn their sights elsewhere. However, there are significant problems with this misinformation. First, is it is not reached. The International Mission Board estimates that there are 999 people groups in the Americas, and of that number, 690 of them are among the least reached people groups with less than 2% of their population being evangelicals. In addition, 356 of those groups are not only among the least reached, they are unengaged, which means that no one has been trying to reach and plant churches among them for at least over the last two years. Furthermore, 85 of those groups are also completely uncontacted; in many cases, missionaries simply know that they are, but not necessarily where they are or very much about them. There is much to do to reach all of the peoples of Latin American countries with the gospel. However, even though I’m advocating for the unreached of Latin America, please be very careful not to buy the lie that missions equals reaching the unreached. Yes, reaching the unreached is biblical and necessary, but the Great Commission is much broader and deeper than that, it is to make disciples among the nations (ethnic groups), baptize them, and teach them to observe everything that Jesus commanded.

The argument that Latin America is reached (which it is not) and therefore we should leave it with the national brothers and move on is misguided. Jesus did not send His church to reach and leave the nations, but to reach and teach them—everything He has commanded us. That remains to be done throughout the jungles, mountains, farmlands, banana republics, modern urban megacities, and seaport cities of that beautiful, resource-rich, and spiritually challenging area of the world that we call Latin America. Countless groups of indigenous peoples, mestizo Latinos, Asians, Arab peoples, Afro-Americans, and Jews live lost lives in a land that is counted as Christian because of the cultural Christianity surface statistics claim.

Another challenge in Latin America is the vast biblical illiteracy. Certainly, some of the most godly pastors, most well-equipped academicians, and most gifted Christian writers are Latin American brothers and sisters. However, they are faithfully serving in their ministries that demand as much of their time as the ministries of their USA counterparts do. They are both overwhelmed in the ministries they serve and are far too few in number for the task before them. Missionaries never concentrated their work on training more like them. The majority of pastors I meet acknowledge that they need training and they plead for it. It saddens me that pastors regularly ask me heartbreaking questions such as, Was Jesus saved before or after His resurrection? Which woman was it that saved Him? Is it okay for Christians to continue to venerate the earth goddess? Many churches here are steeped in animism but meet in buildings with crosses on the top so missiologists and researchers count them as Christian. I recently preached in an indigenous church that has been meeting together for 25 years. A mission agency built them a building 25 years ago, but they never returned to disciple the congregants, teach the leaders, or even to preach—they never set foot in the community again. It is no wonder that the church members still practice their traditional witchcraft and sorcery; they say that they never even knew that it was wrong to do so.

Many regions of Latin America that we have scratched off our lists as “reached” are Christian in name only; they have never been discipled but rather simply joined a church. Since the Spaniards, conquistadors, and Catholic missionaries came in the late 1400s, Latin America is the recipient of a form of Catholicism that is not only the product of the Spanish Inquisition, but is also pre-Reformational since the Reformation did not begin until 1517. And since the Reformation never made it south of the Pyrenees, even subsequent waves of Catholic missionaries were never tempered with the truth of Grace and the Solas. They imposed the harsh Catholicism that they brought with the point of a sword. Indigenous peoples became very adept at embracing the outward forms of new religions for personal gain and protection.

Reading my blog and Facebook posts about my travels in Latin America has prompted many new friends to email me about their call to the peoples of the Western hemisphere and express their frustration at not finding ministry opportunities. Indeed, many traditional mission agencies are redirecting their efforts to other areas of the world. In hard economic times, they are following the donor dollars that are more interested in the least reached places on the planet. Everyone would hopefully agree that we must reached the least reached and preach the gospel to every person as soon as possible. However, we must also conserve the hard-won advances we have made by discipling and teaching the believers that we have reached. The effort to reach the least reached would be better served by training up a host of evangelists and missionaries whom God is calling from the traditional fields we have served so long, who can go before us and go with us to serve alongside us.

I always tell those called to Latin America but who find themselves frustrated by various mission boards, that they must follow God’s call on their lives, not God’s call on the agency. As a friend of mine often says, “The board is not the Lord.” Never compare your call with another’s to decide the right course of action. I have seen many Christians drawn away from their duty and calling by comparing themselves and their lot with others. I preached not long ago on the four kinds of men in the world: a man’s man, a ladies’ man, a selfish man, and God’s man. Each of those seeks to please someone, either other manly men, the ladies, self, or God. Whom will you serve?

Sometimes the emails I get are asking what kinds of missions opportunities are available in Latin America. A short list of some of the greatest needs would include theological education, pastoral training, university ministry, youth ministry, MK teachers, orphanages, hospital ministry, physicians, dentists, water-wells, health education, evangelism, discipleship, guesthouse ministry, vocational training, rescuing streetchildren, Christian camps, publishing, bookstores and literature ministry, reaching the influential segments of society, intercultural training and missionary orientation, church planting, and whatever the Holy Spirit has called and gifted you to do. The highest and best use of your life is to do what God calls you to do in the place He calls you to do it. Never apologize about your call. If God has given it, He knows why and He knows that you are the perfect person for the job and the perfect place for you to glorify Him.

Some of the mission agencies that have continued to maintain a strong focus on Latin America are increasingly my heroes. I could write a book on each one of them and the contributions they have made, and are committed to continue in Latin America. Some of the brighter lights in the harbor are Latin America Mission, South America Mission, CAM International, and Global Outreach International. Of course, major missions agencies like the International Mission Board, Avant, and HCJB that have made such a great impact here will very likely always have a presence, though it is rapidly diminishing. If you share my burden for Latin America, why not write an email to those agencies focusing on Latin America and thank them for their commitment to this vital region. If you have influence in the agencies that are diminishing their efforts here, why not exercise it to encourage them to stay the course and refocus on new challenges and opportunities rather than abandon the region. The needs are so great, the opportunities are so numerous, and the time is now to seize the day for Christ’s glory and the advance of His kingdom.

I would add a word of caution to the agencies that are drastically reducing their missionary personnel and resources to Latin America. I have seen several major traditional missions agencies’ offices and guesthouse properties for sale in the last few months, evidence of a dramatic draw down. Be aware that as evangelicals leave, Muslims are coming in behind us. One brother in the USA told me a sad tale of going to Latin America to help an ailing missionary pack up and move home. He said as they pulled out of town, they noticed two young Mormon missionaries moving in. Well, the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are still coming in increasing numbers, but Islam is also firmly established and still coming. While missiologists debate the exact population figures, a missionary who concentrates his ministry to reach Muslims in South America estimates that their numbers are around 21 million and growing. Leftist governments in Latin America are eager for Muslim governments’ economic resources. We have a proverb that he who pays the piper calls the tune. We dare not abandon Latin America to untrained brothers and sisters who acknowledge the threat and their need and are requesting our aid.

Rather than leave, our ministries should change. We must train theologians, prepare pastors, teach teachers, and disciple disciplers (2 Timothy 2:2). As we train them, we are ensuring their protection from the cults and false religions that will seek to deceive and win them. As Latin Americans feel called to reach, teach, and preach in their own and neighboring countries, let us train them for the work. They will do it better than we ever could once their heads, hearts, and hands are prepared for the work. We should train those called to go to the world to be the best missionaries they can be. They will be able to reach and teach in many areas much better than we could and with much easier access since they do not carry a USA passport that garners scrutinizing examination from increasing numbers of USA-hostile governments. We talk a lot about creative access, especially to Arab lands. Perhaps the most creative access of all is to stay and train Latin Americans to go to those with whom they shared the Iberian Peninsula for almost 800 years."

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So, what do you think about what David writes above? Any thoughts?

What to do with a billion $ - by Wolfgang Simson

Blueprint of a contemporary Kingdom expense sheet

If we define the Kingdom of God as the domain of God’s uncontested rule, then no amount of human ingenuity, creativity, entrepreneurship and connectedness can substitute the core issue: how would Jesus spend his money that is on our accounts if we would not contest it?

Kingdom principles are, in their original Hebrew, pre-secularized and pre-democratized form, ethical absolutes that Jesus the King both modeled and taught. The economic principles of the Kingdom are no exception and demonstrate that there are two radically different and opposed sets of economic systems: Kingdom economics, and the economics of Babylon.

The validity of Kingdom economic principles are, in addition to this, compounded by the historical fact that the early church as recorded in the New Testament lived by those principles without intervention or rebuke from the King-which he would have surely done if they were off the mark, setting a false example for those that follow in the course of history. Historic progress and cultural or political change does not replace eternal Kingdom values-it simply requires a wise and culturally relevant re‐application of unchangeable financial principles in today’s world. As in any Kingdom, there are values and specific issues that requireprioritization . This is why the following list follows Kingdom order:

ONE) Orphans and widows in the Kingdom.

Principle: Family first. We must demonstrate supernatural and practical love and mercy (diaconia) towards our own poor – or we dare not call ourselves a family. As long as some of our own family members need to crawl whimpering, cold and hungry into a street corner or are unprotected and lost, any lofty idea, vision or investment plan becomes cruel (see 1 John). The most vulnerable citizens of the Kingdom are widows and orphans. We are required to “do good to everyone, first and foremost to those in the family of believers” (Gal 6:10; see also John 13:2 and Gal 2:10).

Application: 25% of our billion, $250 m, goes to uncared for widows and orphans, especially family members of those killed for their faith in countries like Indonesia, India, Central-Asia or China. Simply organizing people into orphanages is neither Kingdom policy nor would it be enough: God wants his most vulnerable children adopted (clothed, fed and socially integrated).

TWO) Spiritual mothers and fathers.

Principle: Those who have become mature trainers, coaches and equippers of others are in other words, spiritual parents, and therefore “workers worth their pay” (Luke 10:7; 1 Cor. 9, Matt. 20 etc.). People who fully invest themselves in parenting and equipping others (Eph. 4:11‐13), just like Jesus from age 30 onwards, have no time to do both business and parenting-with the exception of Paul’s brief time as a tentmaker or in an apostolic start-up phase. Paul uses strong language in 1 Cor 9:14 and speaks of a not a suggestion but a command of Jesus that “those who preach the gospel shall live from the gospel.” The key group in expanding the Kingdom of God are, reflecting biblical priorities, not evangelists, but “apostles and prophets”. The church in Philippi raised a substantial and liberating sum for the needy apostle Paul who, lacking support from a church that should support him, had no other choice than to “make tents” for a limited time (Acts 18:1 ‐5; Phil4:15) which vitally limited his explosive apostolic potential.

Application: 40%, $ 400m that go towards a strategic financial First Aid and global re-instatement project, particularly for apostles and prophets. Reason: most pastors and teachers (theologians) today are salaried, while most healthy “apostles and prophets”, the research & development wing of the Kingdom, are, in most countries, unpaid at the fringes or even outside the radar of the traditional church for many centuries. This has created a backlog of thousands of unpaid (apostolic and prophetic) workers James 5 style, and if the mobilizers of others are themselves tied down, standstill is inevitable.

THREE) Apostolic projects and Kingdom initiatives.

Principle: Paul arranged a financial collection for the aging grandmother churchof Jerusalem (1 Cor. 16:3); the apostolic council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) needed someone to pay for the chicken; logistical challenges required money for trips.

Application: 25% or $ 250 m. The key area of Kingdom advancement today are areas long and painfully overlooked by a non-apostolic church: the creation of models or Kingdom outposts that demonstrate the superiority of the Kingdom in areas like family, education, culture (technology, nutrition, sports, arts, media etc), business & finance as well as politics. Here we need to fund inventors, pioneers and Kingdom entrepreneurs and their initiatives, as they develop Kingdom solution for the worlds problems.

FOUR) The outside poor.

Principle: Diaconia to those outside the church. Giving to the poor who were outside the Kingdom was not compulsory, but voluntary (Mark 14:7: “…and if you want, you can help them anytime”), a very wise emphasis forgiving-priorities by Jesus himself. Otherwise the never ending and screaming need of the poverty of this world would completely sap the entire budget of the church in no time-and leave not budget for any self-preservation or advance strategies.

Application: 10% or $ 100 m. In light of many government and transnational initiatives like UNICEF, plus 10.000’s of NGOs with asocial and philanthropic funding focus-as well as initiatives like Bill Gates’ “billionaires give half their kingdom club”, the MicahChallenge or the Copenhagen Consensus, 100 or 200m of additional Christian money will not swing the pendulum much at this point. Poverty has other roots than a lack of money. This is why social charity towards the outside poor is, kin typical upside Kingdom fashion-at the end, not the beginning, of our list.

(For more on this see Wolfgang Simson: The Starfish Manifesto, downloadable at www.whileweslept.wordpress.com)

Thinking like a missionary

Ernest Goodman wrote a while back a great post worth sharing entitled If you thought like a missionary...

The word “church” would conjure images of people, not buildings.

Your plans for the year would be limited only by your creativity, not your available funds. You’d have a plan for what happens after you’re gone (a plan that could be implemented tomorrow).

You’d worry more about getting things right than being right. You’d know that every decision you make along the way has far-reaching implications for the work. Missionaries think about the long-term strategic consequences of decisions like establishing elders too soon, dividing up families for Bible study, and growing one large church vs. starting several smaller ones.

Church planting would be more than just starting a church and being its pastor; it would entail discipling indigenous leaders and pastoring through them.

You’d exegete your cultural context, not consume it. What you learn would inform what you do, because indigeneity would be a goal of your work.

You would love your city, but never quite feel comfortable in it. Something would always remind you that you are a stranger, pilgrim, and at best, an acceptable outsider.

Your church would understand that it’s only a part of what God is doing around the world. There’s a lot to learn from believers of other times and in other contexts. Global involvement cannot wait until local work is mature.

Your team would spend more time listening to the Holy Spirit than listening to you.

Your family’s active involvement would be vital to your ministry. Missionaries, at least the ones that last, include their spouse and children in building redemptive relationships.

The people you’re ministering to would have your mobile phone number. The real one.

Your stories would be current, first-person, and self-depreciating.

You would be keenly aware of the depth of your inadequacy, the dangers of the spiritual reality, and the blessing of God’s gracious provision.

You should become a missionary.

Paperwork and information exchange

I don't know about you, but I spend an enormous amount of time on paperwork and exchanging information with other people. In fact, as a missionary, it embarrasses me to admit that more of my time is spent exchanging information than engaging in what I consider real face-to-face people ministry!

Before you judge me too quickly though, this is not by choice. Yes I could choose to ignore all the communications, paperwork that fills so much of my time, but it won't make it go away. We live in an information society. Information is the commodity being traded. I engage in ie to the extent I do, not so much by choice, but because it has to be dealt with.

I personally think we are spending way too much time exchanging information. We are over saturated with information that we cannot absorb. Most of it doesn't even matter! (Of course, if it is information I NEED or WANT, then that's a different story! :)

Exchanging information has become an end in itself. Passing endless information back and forth seems to be the norm. It is what we do when we get up in the morning. Like alcoholics, we seem to have an unquenchable thirst for more and more. But wouldn't it be better to just start using a small portion of the info we already have and do something with it? The more time we spend passing info back and forth, the less time we have for doing what Christ told us to do.

All around me I sense an overall decline in fruitful ministry. How many of us can actually show ministry indicator numbers rising instead of falling? Seems baptisms, church plants, leadership training, discipleship, etc. are lower today than in the recent past. My own response to this is that "the work" has ceased to be the work. In place of what used to be old-fashioned missionary work of preaching and teaching, today we exchange information!

I have yet to do a personal study of time spent engaged in actual people ministry vs. info exchange, but would guess for many missionaries--including myself--it is somewhere in the ball park of a 3:1 ratio. Three times more is given to ie than pm (people ministry.) And then we are shocked at how little there is to report in the way of new Christ followers, baptisms, church plants, and new UPGs engaged. I sometimes think we are more in love with our media outlets and communication gadgets than we are with real people!

Ministry activities such as teaching, training, prayer, discipleship, counseling, mentoring, visiting, helping, encouraging, serving, listening, witnessing, planning, engaging, etc. take up MINUTES of our days, while HOURS are spent exchanging information via Skype, emails, phone calls, listening/viewing news, SMS text messages, Facebook, chatting, reports, tracking finances, logging receipts, blogging, filling out forms, tracking down needed information, clicking internet links, reading the latest 'must-read' hot book title, Twittering, skimming internet articles, meetings, and more meetings. Organizing, passing along, finding, tracking, reporting and exchanging info is now what we do. We have become information junkies!

Of course, some ie is necessary in order to engage in effective ministry. But when that ratio falls out of balance into something akin to my 3:1 ratio, something needs to be done. It would seem a 1:3 ratio--one part ie, three parts ministry--is what we should strive towards.

The real problem is not what everyone else is doing--or even what I think everyone else is doing--it is what I am doing! Where is my time and energy being spent?

Some of the things I am personally trying to do to overcome this lopsided 3:1 ratio...

1) becoming aware of the amount of time I am spending each day with paperwork and exchanging information

2) purposefully spending less time exchanging information by being more selective (prioritizing what is responded to, what is delayed, what can be discarded, etc.)

3) sticking closer to daily "to do" lists where real ministry tasks are at the top of the list

4) trying to get emails and other paperwork done during designated ie times of the day, rather than trying to tackle them all day long (the inflow is never ending)

5) being more intentional with ie that I select to engage and channeling it for specific ministry purposes (see "Why I Blog".)

6) resisting the temptation to "chase rabbits" (eg. starting out to do a simple Bible Study on John 3, and end up reading about the influence of Charles Wesley's hymns on the Great Awakening.)

7) realize that just because everyone else seems to be happily engaged in a 3:1 ie ratio, I don't have to keep up with everyone else

8) just because someone throws me the ball, I don't have to catch it (if I don't have the information being requested, just say so, and leave it at that rather than engage in a long hunt for something the one throwing me the ball could do for themselves)

What do you think about any of the above? Are you drowning in the sea of information overload? How do you balance these matters in your own life and ministry?

Why I blog

A few days ago the 150,000th page was clicked on the M Blog. I know this isn't a big deal to anyone else, but for me it represents a milestone in something I felt the Lord leading me to do going back several years.

Why do I blog?

Everyone has their own reasons, but four years ago it dawned on me that I was personally doing very little to make disciples of the nations.

For us, Guayaquil is our "Jerusalem", not the ends of the earth. Though we are international missionaries living in a cross-cultural setting, I was personally not doing much of anything to engage our own Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. What difference was there between what we were doing, and all those other churches out there equally focused almost exclusively on their own Jerusalems?

After some prayer and soul-searching, I decided to try and reach beyond our Jerusalem and begin to impact in at least some small way the Judeas, Samarias, and nations beyond. Blogging is one of the ways we have been able to do this.

Seldom does a week go by that someone reading the "M Blog" has not contacted us personally. Something clicks within as they read. They want to engage in more personal dialog. These people come from all over the world. These readers have questions. They too are seeking how to best win their own Jerusalems, Judeas, and ends of the earth. Sometimes they seek advise. Other times they want to know about materials we use. Over the years, literally dozens have ended up actually coming to Ecuador and serving their 'ends of the earth' through that initial contact made through the blog! We know of at least three families who are currently in the process of transitioning from their lives in the USA to full-time overseas service due to initially stumbling across something shared here on the "M Blog."

Many times a blog post written by myself or others touches upon an aspect that another brother is dealing with personally. Private emails and public comments are exchanged which often stimulate new ideas and function ala Hebrews 10 to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together...but encouraging one another... for more effective service.

Examples of this would be posts like What are we doing here? or Returning to Ecuador being used to encourage fellow laborers out there likewise going through times of questioning their own ministry, and hearing from fellow laborers that, we too, feel and sense these same kinds of weaknesses.

Likewise, I have received from other people's posts key insights, ideas, suggestions which we have used in our own church planting ministry. These examples are almost too numerous to mention. But in this way we are impacting one another's ministries for the good of the Kingdom.

One of the unforeseen ministries that has quietly evolved out of blogging, is the stream of emails and inquiries generated coming in from all over the Spanish-speaking world. Sometimes they are from fellow missionaries, but most come from Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters who have questions and do not know where to turn for answers. There are few resources available in Spanish for the who, what, when, where, and how of simple church, and church planting in general.

I personally observe a swelling tidal wave of people beginning to explore and reexamine the NT in light of church practice--especially related to the "nuts and bolts" of doing simple/organic/house church practice. I have mailed out dozens of copies of our materials over the past few years to church planters all over the Americas. Sometimes I hear back from them, sometimes not. Related to this is a good amount of time spent weekly answering inquiries generated by people passing on posts and information originating from material read on the "M Blog." In this way we are able to have an influence not only our own Jerusalem, but on far-away places which we normally would never have a chance to engage.

As time has gone by, we have added to the blogging other projects to engage our Judea and Samaria that are beginning to yield tremendous fruit. One of these is our "Guayas for Christ" project to reach our Judea.

To engage our Samaria, our church planting team is currently partnering directly/indirectly with several ministry projects which seek to engage overlooked, or marginalized people's in our midst: the abandoned elderly, AIDS victims, street kids (gangs), women in prostitution, delinquent youth, and homosexuals.

This whole Acts 1:8 mindset is being caught by the churches in our network. It is exciting to sit with them over discussions of how they might be able to impact places like India, the surrounding provinces, and the jungles of Peru. Money doesn't seem to be the central issue; rather discernment of the Lord's will, prayer, faith, and how if we sacrificed more, we might be able to send out others as cross-cultural missionaries.

So, in a nutshell, that is why I blog. Thanks for reading and especially for all you do in obedience to engage in the task of making disciples of the nations.

Rejecting those forms of evangelism that brought us to faith

Frank Viola recently dared to challenge some of the common held beliefs about evangelism with his controversial post Rethinking Evangelism.

My purpose is not to rehash Frank's words in this post. I chose to express my own thoughts as one of the 128 comments which the post has generated to date (see comments #15-18.)

What I think needs to be said about evangelism is simply this: just about any kind of intentional evangelism is better than no evangelism at all.

It would seem that many of those who are most critical of certain kinds of evangelistic methods are the ones who are least involved in personally evangelizing others. To criticize the simplistic methods others are attempting without personally doing anything at all to win others to Christ seems a bit hypocritical.

I fully agree with another commenter on Frank's post Dan Kimbal (#27 down) who stated it this way:

I was at a NT Wright event recently and he said something to the sort, that today we often reject the very forms of evangelism that brought us to faith because we now see them as simplistic. Which they might have been true. But he then said maybe these simple forms are what God uses, as he knew people who stay in the faith for their lifetimes as a result. And it is almost becoming an excuse not to evangelize or to have reasons for not seeing new disciples, blaming for simplistic forms – and ironically, the very ones which God used often to bring us to a decision point for Jesus. It is fascinating to hear that such a large majority of us came to faith in Jesus through an altar call (like I believe you told me you did) or someone sharing with us directly about faith who did “evangelize” us. But now we say that isn’t right, but at the same time being in a local church we just baptized 15 people last week and listening to their stories they were “evangelized” as in proclaiming the good news from someone. Either a family member, or someone who was a friend or someone at the church took the time to explain and go out of their way with them. And I am so happy someone did with me. But all these stories has someone taking the effort and time to do so. It didn’t happen via osmosis without words, explanation also taking place intentionally.

In our own ministry we teach many different contextualized ways we believe are effective in sharing the Gospel with not-yet-believers. We expose trainees to six methods/tools for using in small group evangelism, four ways to evangelize in large groups, and ten tools for personal evangelism.

What we encourage is to use these as an evangelism TOOL BOX. Use the tool that is needed for the situation at hand. You don't want to use a hammer for every job. Sometimes a screw driver is needed, or a wrench, or a combination of various different tools. But all tools are useful in the right context.

I can't tell you how many people have come to Christ over the past decade of teaching these "simplistic" methods. The very ones reached with these "outmoded" methods are today using them to reach their own friends, neighbors, and family. These new believers are then taught to do the same.

As the previous blog entry video slide show of the 60 years of Baptist missionary presence in Ecuador reminded me; it is not so much about what methods were used to bring the Good News to Ecuador. What matters is that people did proclaim and continue to share the Gospel. Some methods are certainly more effective than others, but just about anything attempted is better than nothing at all.

Taking a break

We are taking a break from blogging for a while during our time in Texas for our son Joshua's high school graduation. Thanks for your prayers for him as he begins a new chapter in his life.

Vote for the M Blog

Time again for the SBC Blog Madness, a fun competition taking place amongst SBC bloggers.

To vote for the "M Blog" click here and scroll down to the SOUTH DIVISION and click on your favorites, but make sure one of those votes is for me!

Voting ends, Sunday, March 21st at an undisclosed time, so go vote now...it will just take a few seconds. Gracias.

Stuff spinning around in my head these days

The "M Blog" is described as one missionary's thoughts, experiences and lessons learned. What goes on in the head of a missionary-church planting strategist? I can't speak for fellow M's, but can share the kinds of disjointed work-related thoughts that are bouncing around in my head these days...

• wanting to restart in our home a house church to test some of the new concepts we are currently using in our training...problem is, we don't have a free night during the week
• Neil Cole's new book, "Church 3.0" and how some of his thoughts might be integrated into what we are currently doing
• how to personally contact the 100+ people we are currently training to encourage them and show interest in the details of their new church starts
• identify key people who we can pour ourselves into to help us train a second wave of 100 church planters who are already in the wings waiting
  
• how to raise badly needed money to finance the multiple missions/church planting projects going on, and yet doing so without creating dependency
• ideas for fine-tuning our current nightly training sessions
  
• the need to make time for more quiet, uninterrupted prayer and listening to God
  
• planning a weekend retreat with the team to do a crash course in using the new training materials; who needs to be there, where to go, what dates, how to pay for it all
  
• desperately needing to sit down with several key leaders to talk doctrinal issues and concerns and clear some of the piling up debris and misconceptions
• setting up March, April, and May meetings with key leaders out in the coastal provinces
  
• keeping the ten2b prayer virus alive and spreading
• the kind of leaders we need, and the kind of leader I need to be to others
  
• urgent "To Do" list: multiple print jobs needing done yesterday, burning 1500 music CDs for trainees, finding someone who can fix the broken copier and video projector
• finding time to make all the pending phone calls and visits
  
• all the stuff pending around the house, emails needing responses
  
• planning this week's CP training out in the Galapagos Islands
  
• sitting down with the host of the Alcance Ecuador TV show to plan a series of upcoming TV interviews, and suggesting we use an assortment of the people currently being trained in starting simple churches as those we interview

So, who cares about the kinds of things circulating within this particular M's head? Where is all of this leading? What is the point?

Proverbs 27:3 "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” We are what we think about. Kind of scary, huh?

I share all of this to say, for me, blogging helps order my thoughts. Writing is a valuable tool helping me connect random ideas into more meaningful and effective ministry. Loose ends--like those described above--often have a way of eventually coming together as blog posts. Clarity comes as I struggle to put something down in writing.

What kinds of things are spinning around in your head? Maybe I'll add them to my own list above!

Lessons from Master Leaders

George Barna has written a book entitled, Master Leaders. A few days ago, he blogged some of the more important personal lessons learned from the 30 leaders interviewed.

After reading these shared lessons, I want to get a copy of the book!

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• Great leaders motivate people by seeing and retelling compelling stories that relate to the vision to which they are committed
• A leader rarely changes a person; he/she simply figures out how to get the best results out of who they are, and who to team them with for the greatest productivity
• Leadership analysts tend to focus on how leaders articulate their ideas; yet leaders more often succeed because of how effectively they listen than because of their speaking prowess
• The world is increasingly complex and challenging: leaders help make sense of the world, often by reducing the complicated and misleading to a simpler, logical understanding
• Individuals who are popular pander to public opinion; genuine leaders expect to become unpopular, choosing to do what’s right and necessary rather than what’s expected and safe
• The probability of success increases if the focus is on the outcomes rather than who gets credit for those results
• If you are not clear about your vision and values, and passionate about the corresponding convictions and goals, success is not likely
• No leader is the “complete package.” There will be times when the chief leader must allow other leaders to provide direction under given circumstances to compensate for the chief leader’s weaknesses
• Leadership is a collaborative process; it’s less about what the leader does than about what he/she facilitates through others
• Great leaders recognize that all people have great worth; the leader’s task is to maximize their delivery of the unique value each person brings to the party
• Leaders get what they measure and what they tolerate
• All great leaders believe they have a moral responsibility to take care of people
• Do not attempt to lead people unless you are prepared to pay a significant emotional, physical and spiritual price

The key, of course, is applying this shared wisdom and not just nodding my head in agreement. This kind of leadership is rare indeed, but needed more than ever. Which of the above lessons speaks to you? Which catches your attention?

If there was no such thing as Christianity

I love blog posts that rattle my cage, cause me to reflect on something I hadn't thought of in quite that way before. There are a lot of great bloggers out there who do this (too many!) John Dennis is one of those. By reposting his article, I am not saying I agree with everything John writes. What follows simply causes me to reflect upon some of my own attitudes, pretenses, baggage and masks I often wear as a Christian.

If there was no such thing as Christianity...

• I would have to appreciate books simply for the good writing.
• I‘d have to socialize with my community rather than the people in my church.
• I’d have to use common sense and wisdom rather than using fleeces and ‘sensings’ to make decisions. So, I wouldn’t have had to get so stressed about missing God’s will if I chose to buy that red car instead of that blue one.
• I wouldn’t be able to watch a movie looking for anti-Christian themes and stuff.
• I’d have no option but to enjoy music simply for the music, not for the message or for the worship experience.
• I would have to love my family, my relatives more than my church family.
• If I couldn’t be a Christian, I couldn’t call a non-Christian my enemy, because I would be one of them myself.
• I wouldn’t feel compelled to turn my eyes away from the topless statue, ‘Venus’, Instead, I would feel compelled to admire its artistic beauty and grace.
• I would not have religious reasons to think I am above the guy I work with.
• I wouldn’t pretend that I don’t like beer.
• I couldn’t have sentimental reasons to favor Israel over the Arabs and would have to let my opinion on that issue be based on what is fair.
• I couldn’t break fellowship with another Christian who doesn’t agree with my view on doctrine.
• I’d have no choice but to give due consideration to the arguments of scientists.
• I would dress up the kids for Halloween thinking only of the fun of it all.
• The crusades - the ‘Holy’ wars, would not have happened.
• People wouldn’t make a fuss about those Harry Potter books.
• I couldn’t say that the devil made me do it.
  

Sometimes I wonder...

If Jesus would really be a ‘good’ Christian by today’s standards of what a Christian is supposed to be like. Maybe somebody would tell him to repent.

2009 Favorites

Favorite Blogger: Hand's down, my favorite blog in 2009 was Alan Knox's The Assembling of the Church. I follow 86 blogs in my Bloglines Feed reader. Out of these, there are some excellent writers, but the one that most consistently comes up with quality and thought-provoking material is Alan's "Assembling..." If I had a suggestion for Alan, it would be to maybe post only 2-3 entries/week. There is simply too much good stuff to absorb!

Favorite newly discovered music artist: Eva Cassidy. Until this past year, I had never heard of the her or any of her songs. She was only 33 when she died in 1996 of melanoma. I discovered her amazing voice and unique interpretations by doing a search for the classic song "At Last" (most often heard sung by Etta James.) Besides downloading Etta's version, I was blown away by Eva's interpretation of the song. To get a taste for her voice, listen to her rendition of "Fields of Gold." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGwDYBWEDSc

Favorite 2009 quote: Followers want comfort, stability, and solutions from their leaders, but that’s babysitting. Real leaders ask hard questions and knock people out of their comfort zones and then manage the resulting distress.--Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie in “The Work of Leadership,” Harvard Business Review

Favorite 2009 books: I recently blogged my Favorite books for 2009 so will not repeat that list here. One category that was not covered in my original post is "Best Book in Spanish". This goes to Alan Hirsch for his masterpiece CAMINOS OLVIDADOS (The Forgotten Ways). I highly congratulate those responsible for making this important work available for the 400-million who speak Spanish as their first language.

Favorite media website: Commission Stories. Stunning stories about what God is doing around the world. The photography/videography is outstanding. Congratulations to all the team responsible for putting out these moving pieces. A glimpse into hell is their latest story.

Favorite movie: While drama is my favorite movie genre, Avatar was such a stunning visual experience, that it has to get my vote for best movie coming out in 2009. Avatar clearly sets a new standard for the giant screen, and will certainly go down in movie history as one of the greatest productions of all time.

Favorite YouTube video: Even though I first viewed this video back in 2007, Lifehouse's Everything Skit continues to be my favorite. I have seen it dozens of times and am still deeply moved every time I watch. Check it out...


Favorite song: For someone whose hobby is searching the world over for new music, this is an almost impossible task due to my love for music in a wide variety of musical genres. In this category I have to go with just one of my 2009 favorites, Jesus Adrian Romero's "No Hay Paredes". I recently put together a video slideshow of the Guayaquil house churches using this powerful song. To see and listen, click here.

Favorite photo: This photo was taken by Curtis Sergeant at Seleucia, on the very beach where Barnabas and Saul set out on their first missionary journey. I find it highly symbolic and prophetic. One of these days, I hope to get around to blogging about what I see in this picture.

What were some of your own 2009 favorites? Share them in the comments section below.

Reports on the 2009 Antioch Gathering

There is a growing number of reports of what took place in the October 2009 "Gathering in Antioch."

What follows is a list of those I have run across. If you are aware of others, please include these in the comments so that I might add them to the list.

The Antioch Gathering 2009 by Tall Skinny Kiwi, "The Antioch Gathering last week was one of the most important mission/church event of 2009. It was probably also the least blogged and least photographed church event this year."

Antioch 2009 good summary by Wolfgang and Mercy Simson, "Rather than focusing on strategy issues (facts, numbers, methods) many of us felt God wanted to call together a token group of people in order to share what is on his heart at this decisive hour in the history of Missions."

Antioch-Part 1 and Antioch-Part 2 personal reflections by Linda Muse, "I have a purpose to fulfill in Ecuador and I needed to be there to learn what that was."

Linda's personal photos and descriptions of the gathering can be seen here. Many more were taken of new friends, but for security reasons cannot be viewed publicly.

The Antioch Gathering (Part 1) and The Antioch Gathering (Part 2) report and reflections by Guy Muse, "The gathering was like no other meeting Linda and I ever attended. There was no set schedule, no assigned speakers, no morning devotionals, no singing, and no hot water!"

The Legacy of Antioch by John Piper (though he wasn't there, it is an enlightening article about the Antioch model of church and missions), "The Legacy of Antioch is that it was a mission church that became a sending church through the partnership of Barnabas and Saul, who in the end were sent out by the church to which they were sent."

Antioch 2009: Going back to where it all began by Mike and Leslie,"What we learned from the experience: WAIT AND LISTEN! It is of utmost importance for us to humble ourselves, lay down our organizational agendas and personal kingdom-building, and just listen to God."

Lessons from Antioch by Linda Muse, "If I learned anything at all this week, it was that I am first, and foremost, a citizen of God's Kingdom. I needed to put down my flag and take up the Banner of the Kingdom. I could no longer allow the flag to compete with the kingdom."

Turkey photos taken by Curtis Sergeant in and around the site where we gathered (really awesome pictures!)

Curtis also shares thoughts on various subjects arising out of our time together in Antioch: Parable for the Institutional Church/Missions Effort?, A New Kind of Disciple, The Bible Channel, Travel Back Through Time, and Central Asia, "God reshaped missions here nearly two thousand years ago. I am gathered here with about 70 people to hear from the Lord together about what He might be saying to us in these days about reshaping missions yet again. It seems to be a particularly fitting place to hear from Him about it, given the significant history here."

Demonization

I read Seth Godin's blog everyday. Recently he wrote this entry which I cannot stop thinking about.

The closer you get to someone, something, some brand, some organization... the harder it is to demonize it, objectify it or hate it.

So, if you want to not be hated, open up. Let people in. Engage. Interact.

So true. Them--our perceived "enemies"--are really not so bad once we make a move closer to them. Sit down together. Share our hearts. Maybe Seth is just reminding us of something Jesus taught his disciples over and over again...love one another. Sometimes to love we must be the one to make the move to engage and let others in. We generally have more in common with people than the differences that keep us apart.

Weekend blog recommendations

Recent posts I enjoyed reading...

A huge problem with "house church" by Alan Knox.

Sure-fire ways to avoid becoming a missionary by Bryan Riley.

The Beach by my wife, Linda, about one of our favorite places in the world. She has plenty of photos to accompany the post.

Video interview with Wayne Jacobsen. Interesting background material on "The Shack". If you liked the book, you'll enjoy the interview (several clips in all.)

Why I blog

Today the 100,000th page was clicked on the M Blog. I know this isn't a big deal to anyone else, but for me it represents a milestone in something I felt the Lord leading me to do going back a little over three years ago now. Not to mention that it is pretty amazing to me that anyone at all would ever take the time to read my attempts at putting thoughts into cyberspace. Most of what we have to share is definitely a work in progress, constantly being modified as we continue to learn from the Lord.

Why do I blog?

Everyone has their own reasons, but for me it began a few years back. It dawned on me one day that I was personally doing very little to make disciples of the nations.

Guayaquil is our "Jerusalem", not the ends of the earth. Though we are international missionaries living in a cross-cultural setting, I was personally not doing much of anything to engage our own Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. What difference was there between what we were doing, and all those other churches out there equally focused almost exclusively on their own Jerusalems?

After some prayer and soul-searching, I decided to try and reach beyond our Jerusalem and begin to impact in at least some small way the Judeans, Samaritans, and nations beyond.

Blogging is one of the ways we have been able to do this. No, it is not the blog itself that impacts, but the PEOPLE reading who are actively engaged in being witnesses to their own J,J,S, and ends of the earth.

Example: Last week a brother who had read some of our writings, contacted me by email and we set up a meeting to talk about ways we could partner to reach his "Jerusalem" (and what is for us, our "Judea"). We were both mutually encouraged, and have begun praying that the Lord of the Harvest would send a team from somewhere to help us engage his area of the province in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Without the blog, and his having read the article, this meeting would probably never have taken place.

Many times a blog post written by myself or others touches upon an aspect that another brother is dealing with personally. Private emails and public comments are exchanged which often stimulate new ideas and function ala Hebrews 10 to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together...but encouraging one another... for more effective service.

Examples of this would be posts like What are we doing here? or Returning to Ecuador being used to encourage fellow laborers out there likewise going through times of questioning their own ministry, and hearing from fellow laborers that, we too, feel and sense these same kinds of weaknesses.

Likewise, I have received from other people's posts key insights, ideas, suggestions which we have used in our own church planting ministry. These examples are almost too numerous to mention. But in this way we are impacting one another's ministries for the good of the Kingdom.

One of the unforeseen ministries that has quietly evolved out of blogging, is the stream of emails and inquiries generated coming in from all over the Spanish-speaking world. Sometimes they are from fellow missionaries, but most come from brothers and sisters who have questions and do not know where to turn for answers. There are few resources available in Spanish for the who, what, when, where, and how of simple church, and church planting in general. I observe a swelling tidal wave of people beginning to explore and reexamine the NT in light of church practice--especially related to the "nuts and bolts" of doing simple/organic/house church practice. I have mailed out dozens of copies of our materials over the past three years to church planters all over the Americas. Sometimes I hear back from them, sometimes not. Related to this is a good amount of time spent weekly answering inquiries generated by people passing on posts and information originating from material read on the "M Blog." In this way we are able to have an influence not only our own Jerusalem, but on far-away places which we normally would never have a chance to engage.

As time has gone by, we have added to the blogging other projects to engage our Judea and Samaria that are beginning to yield tremendous fruit. One of these is our "Guayas for Christ" project to reach our Judea.

To engage our Samaria, our church planting team is currently partnering directly/indirectly with several ministry projects which seek to engage overlooked, or marginalized people's in our midst: the abandoned elderly, AIDS victims, street kids (gangs), women in prostitution, delinquent youth, and homosexuals.

This whole Acts 1:8 mindset is being caught by the churches in our network. It is exciting to sit with them over discussions of how they might be able to impact places like India, the surrounding provinces, and the jungles of Peru. Money doesn't seem to be the central issue; rather discernment of the Lord's will, prayer, faith, and how if we sacrificed more, we might be able to send at least one person as a short-term missionary.

So, in a nutshell, that is why I blog. Thanks for reading and especially for all you do in obedience to engage in the task of making disciples of the nations.

When reasons disappear and practices continue

Another great post from Alan Knox.

According to a commercial on the radio, there is a law in Arizona that makes it illegal to allow a donkey to sleep in your bathtub.

Also, apparently, in Minnesota, there is a law that makes it illegal to cross the Minnesota state line with a duck on your head.

While these laws seem funny and even ridiculous to us, there was probably a good reason for passing the laws in the first place. If we traced the history of these laws, we would probably understand why the laws are on the book. However, while the history may clear things up for us, history will not make the laws make sense today.

Why? Well, most people don't own donkeys today, much less allow them to sleep in their bathtubs. And, I don't think I've ever seen someone with a duck on their head.

But, of course, once a law is on the books, it is difficult to remove it.

The same thing happens with our traditions and practices and rules in the church. For very good reasons, the church begins doing things and begins doing them in certain ways. Eventually, the reasons disappear, but the practices continue.

Eventually, if we're not careful, those practices become more important to us than who we are as the family of God in Christ. The way we do things becomes more important than the reason we started doing them in the first place. We become defined by our methods instead of being defined by our relationship with God and with one another.

I think we see this today in many aspects of our lives together as the church. We don't know why we do the things we do or why we act the way we act or why we're structured the way we're structured, but someone must have had a good reason to start doing it this way, and we're familiar and comfortable with these things, so we just let them continue.

But, the silly laws I mentioned at the beginning of this post - laws against donkeys sleeping in bathtubs and wearing a duck on your head - generally don't affect people today. For many people, their lives will not be changed if the laws remain or are repealed.

But, it is completely different for the church. The things that we do day after day, week after week, year after year, simply because that's the ways it's been done, or the ways we've been taught, or the ways that have worked before, or even the ways that seem rational and logical... these things affect us as followers of Jesus Christ. They affect our relationship with God and our relationships with one another.

The things that we do or don't do, the way that we're structured or not structured, the way that we speak or don't speak, all of these things work to either build us up toward maturity in Christ, or they hinder our development in Christ.

Laws against donkeys sleeping in the bathtub seem funny and ridiculous to us. But, I wonder if the way we treat one another as the church, the way we set up hierarchies among believers, the way we abandon our responsibilities toward one another and pay others to carry out our responsibilities... I wonder if these things seem funny to God.

Calling: What is that all about?

A few days ago I wrote a post entitled Returning to Ecuador. I stand by what I wrote, but after talking and responding to quite a few private emails and conversations with several who were puzzled by what I had written, I now realize more clarification is needed.

For me, the following testimony written by a fellow missionary in Italy is a good compliment piece expressing what I was trying to express in my initial article.

---------------------------------------
FIRST-PERSON: Calling an 'undeniable,
irresistible' force
By Chris Watts

ROME (BP)--Calling, to me, is a funny thing.

In my experience, God's call comes upon you with a furious intensity and drowns you in an incredible desire to do something huge and glorious, something that is completely beyond the measure of your own abilities.

It changes your path completely and thrusts you into a new and unknown world where utter reliance on the plan and providence of God is an absolute necessity. After a time, though, once the realities and routines of this new world have set in, some of that initial intensity fades a bit, and the calling evolves into the stabilizing foundation upon which every facet of your new life is built.

It never diminishes in its strength or importance, but rather than a sword with which to storm the walls of a lost world, calling becomes more of a compass for staying true to your path. I believe this evolution is necessitated by the fact that "the calling" serves two distinct roles.

People contentedly strolling along in an easy and comfortable life often need something violent and fierce to move them powerfully and awaken them to the harsh realities of a lost and dying world. Our Baptist cocoon often insulates us from the pain and hopelessness of a world without Christ.

Some of us, me included, need to be slapped pretty hard to see things clearly and hear the voice of God. Often it seems that change never comes to those who can stand to live without it. This initial calling causes us to be dissatisfied with anything else. It is undeniable and irresistible.

However, once you start down that path, you are confronted on a daily basis with these hard realities. You no longer need to be awakened; you need to be sustained. This life is incredibly difficult. A missionary must make the conscious decision every day that this lifestyle is still worth it. "The calling," always lurking in the background, often gives you the strength to keep trudging forward.

This doesn't mean the passion diminishes. On the contrary, the passion for the work grows as you witness with your own eyes the incredible ways in which God is at work in the world, as you see lives being transformed and you sense the intense pain in the hearts of those around you. You begin to understand the power of the Gospel and you long to see people receive the
love of Christ.

I am convinced that this job to which I have been called is the greatest, hardest and most worthwhile way in which I could spend my life. And until I am called, kicking and screaming, to something else, there is nothing that could make me quit.

-- Chris Watts and his wife, Colleen, serve as Southern Baptist missionaries in Rome. Originally from Georgia, they were appointed in 2000 and have a 1-year-old-son named Cotton.

Blog madness 2009

Over at SBC Voices there is a fun contest going on for the 2nd Annual SBC Blog Madness 2009. Much to my surprise "The M Blog" is listed in the South Division up against some very good blogs--several of which I read regularly.

Everyone is being encouraged to drum up votes for their blog, so PLEASE VOTE FOR ME in this first round elimination. Click here and vote for the M Blog!

Church planting quiz

God Grown has come up with a quiz to help one determine whether or not your heart is in the right place for going out and starting a new church.

Here are my quiz results. If you take the test and care to share your results, please paste them into the comments section below. I'd love to see how others scored!

You Scored as To Answer God's Call Listening to Jesus and doing what he says will always prove a good strategy in church planting. While God calls in many ways, it will be essential when times get tough that you remember your calling. Missions and Disciplemaking 88% To Answer God's Call 88% Building Intimate Community 75% Because it is Doctrinally Sound and/or I read about it in a Book 63% I just want to Lead 55% I am Detoxing from a Harmful Church Experience 44% I want to Plant a Larger church 35%