A few years ago, I coauthored a book entitled The Wholehearted Church Planter: Leadership from the Inside Out. The general thesis of this book is that almost anyone can plant some kind of church if they know and love God, know and love people, and appropriately know and love self. Writing on knowing and loving people, I reference Harry Emerson …
In the current worldwide refugee crisis, an unparalleled 60 million people have been displaced from their homes. Approximately 20 million are refugees (the highest number since World War II), and the rest are mostly either asylum seekers, stateless persons, or internally displaced from their cities or towns but still living in their country of origin. Just 3 countries, Turkey, Pakistan and …
I am a product of privilege. In general, I expect to be acknowledged, treated with respect and to have my voice heard. I walk with confidence, use the language of a person who has had the opportunity for a good education, flash my insurance card that gets me good medical care and eat food, wear clothes, and attend events that …
Many years ago, we invited a friend to lead some simple music at the Easter service at a community center. He was early, so he sat outside strumming his guitar. The next-door neighbors heard our friend’s music and invited him into their home to play for them. He told them that he only knew how to play Christian music, but …
As I write this, I am on my way to a church planter assessment center where I will meet potential planters and be part of a process that helps them determine some best next steps regarding their church planting models and approaches. As I prepare to meet them, I am praying for wisdom, insight, and God’s best for each of …
Recently (admittedly) I took one of those “challenges” that continually show up on Facebook. This particular one offered to map my use of words and visualize those most used on my personal wall. It was no surprise to me that the word “new” stood out above all others. New churches (church was my second most-used word), new studies, new reports, …
My husband and I recently returned from vacationing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a highly multiethnic city of 1.67 million people in a metro area consisting of 7.9 million people. The city itself is predicted to grow to 2.2 million by 2020. Kuala Lumpur is a global city, offering international financial services, headquarters to multinational corporations, a center for new ideas and …
When it comes to disciple-making, church-planting movements often use a tool known as the Four Fields. Field One (Go) is the entry strategy. Typically, it involves discovering a person of peace, as in Luke 10:1-12 (for a great description of the role of a person of peace read JR Woodward’s article, “The Person of Peace and Their ‘Oikos’”). Field Two …
I think a lot about the importance of living well in every tense—specifically, past, present, future, and present-future tenses. Here, I would like to think out loud, applying this concept to the practice of evangelism, one of the critical skills of well-qualified church planters. Past Tense Before I became a follower of Jesus, I was quite a rebellious iconoclast. It …
On June 25th, the U.S. Census Bureau published an article entitled “Millennials Outnumber Baby Boomers and Are Far More Diverse.” Their research shows that the U.S. population born between 1982 and 2000 now represents more than one quarter of the nation’s population (83.1 million versus 75.4 million boomers). This group is more diverse than any previous generation, with 44.2% belonging …