Great STM advice from Mike Gunn

Unsubscribe

Mike Gunn Started about 6 hours ago

I Just returned from my 17th trip to Visakhapatnam, India and working with my good friend Arjuna and his wonderful ministry, Vision Nationals (www.visionnationals.org). I have been speaking at his pastor’s conferences and training his church planters for the better part of 14 years, and have seen wonderful results and growth. The churches I ministered in have accompanied me on many of these trips to work with the kids in his children’s home, and it has definitely been a blessing to the kids and those on the trip, and a great ongoing partnership for my church and the ministry in India.

Unfortunately, many decry these types of “Short Term” missions as “harmful” to the nationals. Everyone seems to be an expert, especially those that have never lived overseas. The potential dangers are, doing for the nationals what they could be doing for themselves, causing unwarranted dependency on the "Sending" agency, forcing western values on the culture you are “Ministering” in, and ignorantly giving information that is unhelpful, or even hurtful to the culture. All of these things of course are harmful and all too often true, but they do not need to be. The eradication of short-term missions would be a huge knee reaction to the problem (Something the church seems to be very good at). We need to jettison our sad stories, and “Wasted” money mind-set, for some thoughtful re-thinking of this type of mission, and think toward the positive impact they can have on the ongoing ministries they are partnering with. I’ve heard one too many “A group went to build a wall for the poor impoverished people only to be torn down 2 months later for something they really needed.” Or, “They all raised money to vacation in Haiti and called it a mission trip.” Or my favorite, “Why are all these people on mission overseas, when they aren’t on mission in their own back yard?” These may all be true, but they are beside the point. Since when has ignorance, arrogance and misappropriation stopped any church programming? If it did, we ought to all pack up and do something else.

I had our group read “When Helping Hurts” on this last trip and it is a wonderful book on poverty and this very subject, and I am thankful that although they cautioned against short term missions, they, unlike others, did not throw the baby out with the bath water. If everyone stopped doing short-term missions, many useful partnerships would be destroyed, and American individualism would reign. We can no longer have a mentality that if you can’t move overseas, you can’t minister overseas. Thankfully, Paul didn’t have this mentality. He had at least 3 missions in the NT, and except for 3 years in Ephesus and 1 year in Antioch, he traveled quite a bit and maintained relationships through visits and letters. In an age of technology, we can do this through emails, Skype and short term visits! 

We are called to “Go” into the whole world with the gospel, but my fear is that we are developing a bunker mentality that works in our back yard, but fails to go to the nations. This is itself a reaction to poor missions during the 19th and 20th centuries. While church planting and training is imperative in the “Reached” world, we need to continue to partner with our brothers and sisters overseas, creating a “Glocal” partnership in all of our churches rather than a “Let them do it themselves mentality.” The authors of “When Helping Hurts” have given us some solid advice to make short-term missions more effective and less hurtful for everyone involved:

1. Make sure the host organization understands the issues behind poverty

2. Make sure the "Mission" is a result of request and need from the host community

3. Design the trip as a “Being” and “Learning” experience more than a “Doing” experience.

4. Ensure that the trip avoids a “Paternalist” mentality

5. Keep the team small

6. Create a solid Assessment for your teams

7. Stay away from the “Go and help save them” mentality, and create a "go an learn" mentality

8. Do not advertise the trip as “Fun” and “Adventurous”

9. Use “Vision Trip” vs. Mission Trip in your presentation of the trip to your people

10. Stay away from presenting trip as “Doing Missions,” when it is not, and denigrates full time mission work

11. Restrict the trip to people who have demonstrated a mission mentality in the US

12. Have the trip be a culmination of a class/learning experience that everyone is required to take (This book is a very good start for a class!)

13. Have a post trip learning experience to capitalize on the trip

14. Require every member to pay a portion of the trip from their own pockets

15. Donate as much of the raised money as you can to the host community

These are some of the suggestions that we have adhered to in the past and are very helpful, and can make an ongoing short term mission a blessing for both those going, and the host community. I would add that creating "Glocal" partnerships in the gospel is the goal, and not doing random, disconnected trips. Paul gave thanks for the Philippians "Partnership" in the gospel, and I believe it is imperative for the health of our churches to be focused on a larger gospel than our own back yards.

I know that expressing these thoughts put me on the chopping block of criticism, but I feel that it needs to be expressed so our own plants do not become ingrown, and self serving. I can take the heat, so what do you think? Blessings!

Mike

Just How Big Is God and How Small Are We?

JUSTIN TAYLOR|9:11 AM CT
Just How Big Is God and How Small Are We?



(Image credit: Mark Subbarao, Dinoj Surendran, and Randy Landsberg for the SDSS team.)

Ethan Siegel:

Although “only” about 250,000 galaxies are shown in the above image, the entire Universe is estimated to have at least hundreds of billions of galaxies, spread out over a spherical region about a million times larger in diameter than our galaxy is. In other words, you and everything you know resides on a tiny, wet rock nearly a million times less massive than the star that powers it, in a solar system one ten-millionth the diameter of our galaxy, which contains at least hundreds of billions of stars not so different from ours, in a Universe filled with hundreds of billions of galaxies, and maybe perhaps more.

You. Are. Tiny.

HT: Andrew Sullivan

Here is some video perspective:



And the ultimate perspective:

Psalm 8:3

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 147:4

He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.

Psalm 148:3

Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!

Seeing this again reminded me of a section of J.B. Phillips’s New Testament Christianity, entitled “The Angels’ Point of View (or, The Visited Planet)“:

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendours and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

“I want you to watch that one particularly,” said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.

“Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,” said the little angel. “What’s special about that one?”

“That,” replied his senior solemnly, “is the Visited Planet.”

“Visited?” said the little one. “you don’t mean visited by ——–?

“Indeed I do. That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory.” And at these words he bowed his head reverently.

“But how?” queried the younger one. “Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince, with all these wonders and splendours of His Creation, and millions more that I’m sure I haven’t seen yet, went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?”

“It isn’t for us,” said his senior a little stiffly, “to question His ‘why’s', except that I must point out to you that He is not impressed by size and numbers, as you seem to be. But that He really went I know, and all of us in Heaven who know anything know that. As to why He became one of them—how else do you suppose could He visit them?”

The little angels face wrinkled in disgust.

“Do you mean to tell me,” he said, “that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?”

“I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him.”

The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.

“Close your eyes for a moment,” said the senior angel, “and we will go back in what they call Time.”

While the little angels eyes were closed and the two of them moved nearer to the spinning ball, it stopped its spinning, spun backwards quite fast for a while, and then slowly resumed its usual rotation.

“Now look!” And as the little angel did as he was told, there appeared here and there on the dull surface of the globe little flashes of light, some merely momentary and some persisting for quite a time.

“Well, what am I seeing now?” queried the little angel.

“You are watching this little world as it was some thousands of years ago,” returned his companion. “Every flash and glow of light that you see is something of the Father’s knowledge and wisdom breaking into the minds and hearts of people who live upon the earth. Not many people, you see, can hear His Voice or understand what He says, even though He is speaking gently and quietly to them all the time.”

“Why are they so blind and deaf and stupid?” asked the junior angel rather crossly.

“It is not for us to judge them. We who live in the Splendour have no idea what it is like to live in the dark. We hear the music and the Voice like the sound of many waters every day of over lives, but to them—well, there is much darkness and much noise and much distraction upon the earth. Only a few who are quiet and humble and wise hear His Voice. But watch, for in a moment you will see something truly wonderful.”

The Earth went on turning and circling round the sun, and then quite suddenly, in the upper half of the globe, there appeared a light, tiny but so bright in its intensity that both the angels hid their eyes.

“I think I can guess,” said the little angel in a low voice. “That was the Visit, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, that was the Visit. The Light Himself went down there and lived among them; but in a moment, and you will be able to tell that even with your eyes closed, the light will go out.”

“But why? Could He not bear their darkness and stupidity? Did He have to return here?”

“No, it wasn’t that” returned the senior angel. His voice was stern and sad. “They failed to recognise Him for Who He was – or at least only a handful knew Him. For the most part they preferred their darkness to His Light, and in the end they killed Him.”

“The fools, the crazy fools! They don’t deserve —-”

“Neither you nor I, nor any other angel, knows why they were so foolish and so wicked. Nor can we say what they deserve or don’t deserve. But the fact remains, they killed our Prince of Glory while He was Man amongst them.”

“And that I suppose was the end? I see the whole Earth has gone black and dark. All right, I won’t judge them, but surely that is all they could expect?”

“Wait, we are still far from the end of the story of the Visited Planet. Watch now, but be ready to cover your eyes again.”

In utter blackness the earth turned round three times, and then there blazed with unbearable radiance a point of light.

“What now?” asked the little angel, shielding his eyes.

“They killed Him all right, but He conquered death. The thing most of them dread and fear all their lives He broke and conquered. He rose again, and a few of them saw Him and from then on became His utterly devoted slaves.”

“Thank God for that,” said the little angel.

“Amen. Open your eyes now, the dazzling light has gone. The Prince has returned to His Home of Light. But watch the Earth now.”

As they looked, in place of the dazzling light there was a bright glow which throbbed and pulsated. And then as the Earth turned many times little points of light spread out. A few flickered and died; but for the most part the lights burned steadily, and as they continued to watch, in many Parts of the globe there was a glow over many areas.

“You see what is happening?” asked the senior angel. “The bright glow is the company of loyal men and women He left behind, and with His help they spread the glow and now lights begin to shine all over the Earth.”

“Yes, yes,” said the little angel impatiently, “but how does it end? Will the little lights join up with each other? Will it all be light, as it is in Heaven?”

His senior shook his head. “We simply do not know,” he replied. “It is in the Father’s hands. Sometimes it is agony to watch and sometimes it is joy unspeakable. The end is not yet. But now I am sure you can see why this little ball is so important. He has visited it; He is working out His Plan upon it.”

“Yes, I see, though I don’t understand. I shall never forget that this is the Visited Planet.”

The Difficult Task of Disciple Making

MATT SMETHURST|10:00 PM CT

The Difficult Task of Disciple Making

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," Jesus announced. "Go therefore and make disciples." When it comes to the mission of believers in this world, few would question the importance of these marching orders. Carrying them out, however, isn't so easy. Consider two scenarios:

1. A middle-aged woman is approached by a young single mom with a full-time job and two kids. The busy mom has been a Christian for decades and is solid on biblical doctrine, but she's currently struggling with personal issues and wants someone to help walk her through this season of life. Because of her work schedule, she can only meet for the summer.

2. A Christian college student is trying to invest in a group of high school athletes. Most of them are brand-new believers, struggling with typical high school issues, and can meet for at least the next year.

Would you recommend taking these people from different backgrounds---with different needs and time commitments---and handing them the same discipleship curriculum?

Consider Downline Builder, a customizable curriculum designed to meet people where they are and foster spiritual maturity in the context of real relationships. In contrast to a one-size-fits-all format, the Downline Builder enables users to personalize scriptural content to fit their specific needs. I corresponded with Downline Ministries director of resources Jason Seville [Twitter | email] about their promising new disciple-making tool.

Downline Ministries has trained thousands of disciple-makers in the past five years through your institute program and summit weekends. What do you find people struggle with most when it comes to making disciples?

There are many reasons people struggle, but the biggest one in our experience is that they either lack a clear understanding of what it looks like to disciple someone, or they have an image of discipleship that is far too shallow. For instance, many people think of discipleship merely in terms of Christian education---going to a coffee shop every Wednesday morning to read the Bible or a Christian book together. This lack of a clear picture of true discipleship results in not feeling qualified or competent to make disciples. Around Downline, we like to speak of discipleship as "truth and life transference in the context of real relationships," which is something almost anyone can do.

So the short answer to this question is "competency." In general, people won't gravitate toward what they feel incompetent to do. We think we have some training (and a new tool) to help with this weakness, but it is still the most common problem we encounter.

Discipleship has always been valued and talked about in the church, but it currently seems to be even more of a trending topic. Why do you think this is the case?

Downline works closely with hundreds of local churches, and the majority of the leaders we talk to say that discipleship is a glaring weakness in their church (and the same is true of our interaction with parachurch leaders). This is no secret, as the recent influx of studies, books, articles, and blogs on discipleship will attest. Discipleship is "trending" because everyone's recognizing it as a huge need.

Perhaps more importantly, we attribute this to the sovereign grace of God as he guides his church. He has raised up some incredible pastors, elders, and leaders around the world, and when they all have a common word on their hearts, at the risk of sounding cliché, it's a God thing. We feel that he is graciously leading his flock toward a return to biblical discipleship. If Downline were the only group talking about discipleship, we'd be very discouraged. But we feel like we're part of a huge movement of churches and believers who want to see a restoration of biblical discipleship.

In your opinion, what does the current world of discipleship curriculum get right and get wrong? 

After extensive research on discipleship curricula, I am greatly encouraged by the sheer volume of rich theological and practical content on the market. I also rejoice at some of the stalwart resources that have been out for decades and stood the test of time.

However, there are two things that I can't help but see as huge oversights. First, there aren't any easily accessible avenues to train disciple-makers to use this rich content to, as we say, "meet people where they are." Most resources seem very cookie-cutter to me, as if I should use the same ten lessons with a 22-year old New York urbanite that I would with a 37-year-old small business owner. Second, the problem with most---if not all---curriculum is that it doesn't force, or even provide accountability for, authentic relationships. Any curriculum should complement the relationship, not replace it. The relationship has to drive true discipleship in order for it to be truly transformative.

What led you to develop the Downline Builder?

Ironically, for the reasons listed above, I've always been anti-curriculum, because I never found a resource that easily allowed for contextualization and majored on relationship. So the genesis of the Builder was really the weight that culminated from the first three questions above.

When Downline asked me to work on a new curriculum, my previous experience and research led me to the following conclusions: (1) it had to be based on Scripture; (2) it had to somehow have a major focus on both truth and life transference: it couldn't be a "let's just sit down and study systematic theology" curriculum, and it couldn't be a "let's just share about our feelings" curriculum; and (3) it had to somehow allow the user to customize it to meet the specific needs of the folks they were pouring into. The only way we could conceptualize a curriculum that would do these things was to move away from printed material and make it a web-based tool.

What makes this resource unique in the vast world of discipleship curricula? 

First, the ability to customize the Builder equips you to do contextual ministry. Once you log in, you have to fill out a page on the person you are discipling or group you are leading. Based on that information, we'll give you a blank table of contents and list of suggested lessons to cover.

Second, it requires relationship building. When you build a curriculum, you must plan what we call a "life on life" session after every two lessons that you put in your table of contents. You can't download or print your curriculum unless you include these fields. These will be things like working out together, running errands, sharing a meal, doing evangelism, engaging in a service project, and so on.

Third, the process equips you to be a disciple-maker as much as the product does. Thinking through various growth areas for each person you're discipling and personalizing a plan will hopefully train you to think more intentionally about what the next spiritual growth steps are for brothers and sisters in your areas of influence.

A fourth uniqueness is the ever-expanding library of doctrinal and practical lessons. You will never have to pay for a "volume two" of the Builder. We'll keep adding lessons (even ones that you suggest) and as long as you have access, you can use the new lessons we add.

Finally, we feel that our payment philosophy is rare, as evidenced by the fact that we've driven our marketing consultants crazy. Our primary objective has always been to have a tool that could help equip and ignite a movement of biblical discipleship across the globe. For this reason, we went with a subscription model that allows you annual access for a very affordable price. If you buy an annual subscription, it's "all you can eat" for the whole year. We could have gone with a pay-per-lesson model, but we didn't like the idea of people trying to see how little they could do and still be effective.

This affordable price meshes well with our desire to get the Builder in other languages as quickly as possible. We have a fairly aggressive translation strategy that will attempt four new languages every year.

We truly hope that God would use this tool to equip pastors, elders, missionaries, and laymen/women worldwide. 

-------

Downline has decided to give the TGC family a 40% off coupon code up through April. Go to builder.downlineministries.com and sign up. Enter the code "TGCdiscount" at checkout to receive your discount. 

Matt Smethurst is an assistant editor for The Gospel Coalition. You can follow him on Twitter.

CATEGORIES: ARTICLES OF INTEREST, COMMENTARY, FEATURED, INTERVIEW, Q&A

SHARESHARE

 

| PRINTABLE VERSION

 

 

 

Click HERE