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November 29, 2011

Fear

Could it be that we don’t send missionaries from our churches because we are not confident in our ability to replace them? Churches that don’t have significant growth aren’t eager to see what little growth they have sent out. In order to be fully, really confident enough to send, perhaps we need help investing in a process for replacing our best and brightest. Perhaps the process for replacing our best and brightest ought to be the same process they will use for making disciples on the field. If we use CPM and obedience-based discipleship principles at home, we will be [...]

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November 28, 2011

Noah

Noah spent a century as the joke of the town. (Not a few days, a week or a month–but a hundred years!) He was the conspiracy theorist of his day: believing in something bad for which there was no evidence. He was the crazy prophet whose prophecy didn’t come true–at least, not for a massively long time. He didn’t have a single convert in the whole of his ministry. None of that invalidated the vision God gave him, nor prevent his obedience.

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November 23, 2011

Qualifications

Believing in the existence of God only qualifies you to be a demon.

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November 22, 2011

Radical thought: finding Jesus in the Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist next door

Jesus made an interesting statement in Matthew 25: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the [...]

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November 21, 2011

Return of the $100 Challenge

The development of ministry partners seems to be the bane of every missionary. Well, maybe just the introverts, like me. I’ve tried a subscription mode for the website in the past, but as I discovered, it just didn’t work. So we stopped it. Because in the end, developing partners is probably a better approach for missions than developing subscribers. Financially, our family is more stable than we have been in the past. This is partially, it is to be admitted, because we are presently in Texas in a fully-funded missionary house that has been graciously provided for us by a [...]

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October 25, 2011

Convincing others

Once you have a vision, the second step in building a swarm is to begin gathering a community of people who share the same vision. If you can’t convince others, it could be that you just aren’t that skilled at persuasion yet. Or it could be that you aren’t convinced yourself. If the vision isn’t clear enough to win you–if the vision is still too easily disposed of–no one else will be willing to live and die for it along with you.  

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October 24, 2011

Latin roots and prisons

The Latin words victus and vincere have to do with conquering. It was something the Romans were very interested in, and very good at. From those words we get the root word “vict” and “vinc”. You can see these roots in a large number of our words. There’s “victim”–one who is conquered (and perhaps sacrificed). There’s “victimize”–one who is made a victim of. There’s “victor”–the one who wins. There’s “convict”–one who has been proved guilty of a crime (or “to convict”, which means to prove guilty). We don’t want to be convicts. There’s also “convicted”–which is the past tense of “convict,” and means [...]

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October 23, 2011

Foxes and Vines

“Little foxes spoil the vine.” If you want to grow grapes to make wine: you have to get rid of the foxes. You might fence off the vine. Or you might kill the foxes. What you can’t do: argue with the foxes. It doesn’t matter how cute they are. It doesn’t matter how red their fur, how sad their eyes, how clever they are with their paws and their teeth. It doesn’t matter that they find your grapes so delicious, or that foxes will be foxes. If you want to grow grapes–if you want to raise your vision to maturity–you [...]

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October 22, 2011

The Uncomfortable Light

As we’re driving down the road, we some times pass a big cargo truck. On the back is plastered a sign that says, “Lights on for safety.” Get up in the middle of the night and head to the bathroom, and what might happen–you might bash your knee against the bed, or stub your toe on the door. Sometimes we switch on the light–for safety. But the light can be uncomfortable. When my wife is the one rustling about, switching on lights, I can roll over, grumbling. Why are you up? What’s with all the lights? Why are you disturbing [...]

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October 21, 2011

The Disposable Life

Getting rid of things is not necessarily the same thing as sacrifice.

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October 20, 2011

Immortals

Nothing lasts except habits, character, and other immortals.

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October 19, 2011

The Word

Are we “getting in the word” or “getting to know the Word”?

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October 18, 2011

My mistakes can’t stop God

I have a free will. I can choose to rebel. But God is ultimately still sovereign–so we shouldn’t fear potential mistakes.

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September 6, 2011

Prod, don’t sway

When we are passionate about our vision, we may not be passionate about the God-given vision someone else has.

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September 5, 2011

Preaching or Multiplying Preachers

If everyone goes out and preaches – and no one makes disciples, or raises up more preachers – we will not multiply.

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September 4, 2011

Steward or Spread Seed

If the Kingdom is like a farmer, we can think of two different ways that a church can be focused.

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September 3, 2011

Industrialization and Adaptation

Industrialization leads to efficiency, but the inability to change leads to death.

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September 2, 2011

Patterns are…

Efficient. Teachable. Improveable. But eventually left behind.

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September 1, 2011

Everything has a name

Does the name define whether it is good or bad?

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August 24, 2011

Merry bands of brothers (and sisters!)

When you are passionate about your vision, but all the doors seem to be closing, you can easily slip from discouragement to despair and paralyzing depression. We have all, probably, known the “long dark night of the soul.” It is in these moments that the power of community becomes so clear. People who encourage you, pray with with you, offer critiques and ideas, and link you to other resources are priceless. They can tell you where you are going wrong, but maybe even more importantly they can reassure you of what you are doing right. David had his band of [...]

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