Archive for September, 2009

Advice from Grant and Jenn

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Recently, our church planting team sat down with Grant and Jenn Haynes to get their parting words of advice based on years of ministry in southern Mexico.  Here are some of the points they shared:

  • Be really careful whose house a church meets in.  Because there are so many divisions and gossip around here, choosing the wrong house can cause a lot of problems.
  • Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.  Don’t latch on to one person too fast when they become receptive to God.  Keep working with a few different people.
  • “We’ve never seen it go well when money gets involved with anyone.”  Be extremely careful about finances being any part of your relationship with someone.
  • As much as possible, never do anything by yourself.  Always have a Mexican on your hip.
  • Discipleship in small groups (say, 3 or 4) is better than one-on-one around here, because with a couple of Mexicans present a person can’t lie about what they’ve been doing.  In one-on-one situations, people are often tempted to lie in order to save face.
  • It’s time for a season of broad scattering of the seed of the Word among many people.
  • Don’t get too married to any one model of church or ministry.
  • The goal is to see the gospel spreading through people’s natural relationship groupings (oikos is the Greek word).  The problem around here is that people’s oikos are small because of divisions and gossip.  Most people don’t have many good friends.  Really pray against that stronghold of gossip.
  • Keep hanging out with God and getting His perspective.  Only talking strategy and looking at the size of the task can be depressing.  Look at the Promised Land, not at the giants.

There’s a lot of good stuff there!  I’m glad we got that time with Grant and Jenn before they leave.

Posted in Church Planting and Discipleship | 2 Comments »

Be fruitful and multiply

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

That’s the subject line of an important email from Global Frontier Missions to its supporters.  The ministry announcement, sent Monday, has significant implications for our church planting team.  In case you missed it, allow me to sum up the message in a few points:

  • GFM’s heart is and always has been the least-reached of the entire world.
  • GFM’s mobilization in southern Mexico resulted in a church planting team committed long-term to the work here.  This frees up GFM to relocate its mobilization efforts to the United States, in order to focus on raising up workers for the 10/40 Window.  (The 10/40 Window is the area where 95% of the world’s least-reached people live.)
  • GFM’s leadership team has been asking the question, “What should be our focus?”
  • Our answer is for GFM to dedicate its efforts to mission mobilization for the 10/40 Window.
  • Because this means the work of the Mexico church planting team will not fit directly within the scope of GFM’s ministry, GFM will be commissioning and releasing our team in April, 2010.  We will no longer be under GFM’s covering, but we will continue under the covering of Commission To Every Nation.

The preceding summary is rather matter-of-fact, but much prayer and heartfelt discussion went into the decisions.  Forming two distinct organizations from what has been one is a big step.  We would only be doing this if GFM’s leadership team clearly felt it was God’s direction for all of us, which we do.  The “sending out” of our church planting team will allow us to fully focus on making disciples in Mexico.  It will simultaneously free GFM to dedicate itself to mobilizing missionaries for reaching Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists.

Our team has been so blessed these past few years by Global Frontier Missions and Grant and Jenn Haynes.  We are honored to be sent out by them.  The passion for the least-reached with which they infected us has brought us to where we are.  We love GFM and will continue collaborating with them as close friends.  The day in April when this change takes effect will be bittersweet indeed.

Being sent out by GFM will in no way change the work our church planting team is doing in southern Mexico. Our purpose is to make reproducing local disciples who multiply themselves to reach the numerous least-reached villages in our region.  In January, Erin and I sensed God leading us to commit to the work here until He makes it clear to us our job is done.  We’re not going anywhere.  Continuing with us on our team are Nick and Sarah, David and Rhonda, Sarah, and Tasha.

If you have questions or would like to know more about this transition, please write me or any other GFM leadership team member.  I would be happy to dialog and to send you a copy of GFM’s announcement.  The announcement has a Q and A section at the bottom that includes answers to the following questions:

  • Will I still be able to be involved in the work in southern Mexico, even though it will no longer have the GFM name on it?
  • What about the GFM base down there?
  • Will any opportunity exist for mission trips to Mexico with you all in the future?

We love all of you in our ministry family!  We look forward to continuing to share the work here with you, and we covet your prayers for both our team and for GFM in this time of transition.

Posted in Global Frontier Missions | No Comments »