Mileage

I’m sitting in my office.

I haven’t been able to say that too often this year. This room isn’t even where my office was at the start of the year. It is the same building, so I guess that’s something. Today has been kind of a ‘self-debrief’ of my October. I was in the US for 5 weeks for Europe leadership meetings, a couple events, and to find more partners for the work in Europe.

The leadership meetings went well. It was the first time that we had an extended time with our new leader David Ruiz. (Below is his talk at Cape Town 2010.)The week was a great time for us all to get to know each other better and begin to focus our direction as a leadership team.

The events were great. I was at the EFCA Great Lakes District conference where there were some great speakers (Mark Batterson was one of them) and I was able to talk with some great pastors & church planters about engaging in Europe. The Missions Fest at the Compass Church in Naperville, IL was also exciting as they focused on ministry in Europe.

As I was going over my calendar for those 5 weeks, I realized that I traveled by car about 3,000 miles. Now, I’m sure there are people who do that all the time. I’m not one of them. That was a lot of driving for me, but it was worth every mile. I was able to spend some time with some awesome pastors and church planters. It encouraged me, it was refreshing to just be with these men.

My Boss Speaking at Cape Town 2010

Two false notions American churches should reject about global ministry

Pastor Chris Brauns gets the hat tip for this post. Seriously good stuff to keep in mind as you are partnering with the Church in Europe or anywhere for that matter. Thanks Chris!

LeadTeam Report

LeadTeam was pretty good. Ok, I think it was the best so far. We had a great start with the Quiet Waters Retreat where we spent the day in fasting and prayer. We got a significant amount of time with our leadership where they were transparent in sharing their heart for the vision to which God is calling us.

I have a few questions that I'm planning on reviewing regularly:

• Am I thinking too small?
• Am I underestimating the power of the Gospel?
• Am I underestimating God's power within me?
• Am I thinking too narrowly?
• Am I working too independently of others?

Here is how I'll be describing RG when I'm meeting with partners in the US & Europe:

We are a Gospel-centered movement

transforming lives, communities and institutions world wide

in the power of God's Spirit

I'm excited about where RG is going.

Leadership Meetings & My Role

January is the beginning of travel season for me. January 21 marked the beginning of 8 days of meetings with the Europe Leadership Team. It was an encouraging time. There has been a lot of transition since Rick Burke left as International Leader for Europe. We spent some time working on organizing ourselves so that we are covering all the important areas.

I was affirmed in my role of 'partnership strategist' or something like that. Basically, I work where we don't have RG staff to mobilize movements. What does that mean? I do a lot of meeting people to figure out who might be like-minded partners. I talk a lot about the RG Sandbox (an illustration which describes how we operate). I try to connect people who I think might help each other. I ask questions to help people think about their strategy and come up with good ideas. I encourage/teach principles of church-based leadership development.

Next post will be explaining a bit about how all that happened on my trip to Albania. First, I've got to shave Nate & John's heads for Crazy Hair Day at school.

Four principles from 2 Cor 8

v. 5 Giving to God, then to each other
v. 8 Not as those who give orders, but those who serve
v. 9 Not as those who own, but as those who give
v.14 Mutual benefit and equal worth

David loaded us down with quite a bit there. I'm loving it.

Question to ruminate on:
Where have I been challenged today in my thinking?
hmm...I hope I can get it all into words in the next couple of days.

Thanks for being a part of my first live blogging experience. I hope it was as exciting to you as it was exhausting to me.

Looking at Structures

David is talking about the beginnings of COMIBAM and how it was organized. It was a cooperative structure in a country between Pastors & Churches, Missions Agencies, and Network of Training Centers which all came together in a network called the National Missionary Movement.

COMIBAM became a catalyst in that structure.

Research is required to figure out who all the players are so they can begin to network together.

After relationships and some level of trust is established 'action networks' can be established to accomplish tasks through voluntary cooperation. As tasks are undertaken together, trust grows and stronger, closer relationships are established .

Cooperation is the starting point for mission. Interesting...

Another finger break...

Causes of spiritual and missionary growth

A strong national leadership, committed to the mission of the church.

The church involved all its members in its mobilizing strategy.

Significant use of media contributed to the presence of the church in society.

A biblical and church-centered missiology is emerging in Latin America. (I think we need that in North America and Europe, too.)

A life time commitment of missionaries is natural. 74% of missionaires sent from Latin America are long term.

'From Field to Missions Force' - tag line from COMIBAM, we need to have that in Central Europe.

The Mission Force

Latin America, Africa and Asia are sending as many missionaries as Europe and North America. We are at the point where those three continents are passing the West in numbers of missionaries being sent out.

There has been a dramatic spike in missionaries sent out since 1990. Mongolia is the most effecient missionary sending church (222 believers to 1 missionary).

I should have tried this live blogging with a slow speaking German. This is a lot of work.

The local church is at the center of the mission process. However, many local churches don't have a biblical understanding of their role.

They were able to create National Mission Movements to help coordinate the recruitment, training and placement of missionaries from each Latin American country.

This helped coordinate the receiving of missionaries in various countries around the world as well.

It is necessary to define what we mean by the word 'resources.' Actually, a lot of terminology needs to be defined in these types of relationships.

National movements create opportunity for cooperation on training.

Giving my fingers a rest for a minute.

Where in the World is the Majority World?

A few quotes from David Ruiz:

The world is upside down.

The shoe sizes of the missionaries have shrunk.

The church is from everywhere and going everywhere.

By 2025 Africa and Latin America will vie for the title of the most Christian Continent.

We were looking at a map of the world where south was on top. A very interesting perspective. Helpful for getting out of the box you don't even know that you're in.

Live blogging from EEMA: Emerging Missions

David Ruiz, former Executive Director of COMIBAM is our speaker tonight at this EEMA (European Evangelical Missionary Association) consultation. David has come to us from Guatemala to share on the issue of Learning From The Majority World. I spoke with him earlier about his involvement in Europe. He has been involved in Albania and has been instrumental in helping churches there begin to send out workers to other countries. Wow. I'm excited about what David will have to say to us tonight. I know that not too many people are actually reading this, but I thought it would be wildly exciting to try live blogging from this event.

Actually, I have had to take time each day I've been here to debrief myself. The discussions I've been a part of have stirred so many ideas that I've had to empty my head a bit between sessions. I've met quite a few interesting people here who have also provoked my thinking on many issues related to missionaries being sent out from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Right now, we're hearing about 'mission-net' which is an event aimed at inspiring a missional lifestyle among European Christian youth. Wow, more ideas...