Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Joy of Healthy Leadership Teams

I have just returned home from 11 days of ReachGlobal leadership meetings in Hong Kong.  During these days the top two levels of leadership for our mission gathered from around the world for a time of prayer, planning and equipping so that we can be most effective in leading the ministries God has entrusted to us.  ReachGlobal has over 550 staff in more than 55 countries as well as over 100 ministry partnerships.  It is always a joy to be together with my colleagues and to hear what God is "up to" around the world.

As I look back over our days together in Hong Kong, I find myself rejoicing in the quality and the health of the leadership teams I serve with in ReachGlobal.  The sad fact over the past number of decades in missions is that more missionaries leave the field because of conflict with other missionaries and serving on unhealthy ministry teams than any other causes.  One would think that the stress and strain of living in a cross-cultural setting or the difficult spiritual issues they face would be what sends many missionaries packing up and heading back home, but unfortunately it is more often an inability for missionaries to get along with other missionaries that is the culprit.

I am blessed to serve in leadership in a mission that values ministry health.  Our ReachGlobal Sandbox states that we are "committed to healthy people living in healthy teams equipping healthy leaders in order to multiply healthy churches."  After spending an extended time over the past two weeks with ReachGlobal leadership teams from around the world I can bear witness to the fact that we are living out our values in very effective ways.  I can honestly say that I have never been with a more committed and effective group of ministry leaders as I was during my days in Hong Kong.

However, healthy leadership teams don't just happen.  Rather they are the result of a great deal of prayer and intentional effort in selecting wisely, deploying strategically, equipping purposefully, and coaching effectively.  Over the past several years ReachGlobal senior leaders have taken great care and expended significant time and effort to get to where we are today.  My time in Hong Kong revealed how impactful this commitment has been on shaping the heart and the health of our top two levels of leadership in the mission.

Over more than 30 years of full time ministry leadership I have learned that one can never take healthy leadership teams for granted.  The Enemy of our souls and arch rival of our ministry is constantly working to undo the good work that God is doing to build healthy teams.  This is why we spent an entire day of fasting, worship and prayer as a part of our time together in Hong Kong.  In addition, we spent a great deal of time learning about and discussing the applications for essential issues related to the overall health and effectiveness of both our staff and ministry partnerships.  Healthy teams take a great deal of focused work to grow and maintain, but from my experience they are worth every bit of it.

We still have a ways to go in growing the ReachGlobal ministry teams around the world to be the most effective and healthy they can be. Yet it is exciting to see the progress that we are making!  I for one can say that it is a joy to be a part of a mission that not only says it values ministry health, but is proactively doing something to bring it to reality on the ground in over 55 countries around the world.  

Monday, March 26, 2012

Equipping a Generation of African Missionaries

Last December I had the privilege to speak at the graduation of the first 20 students from an intensive four month Missionary Equipping Course in Monrovia, Liberia.  It was a great joy to see the deep commitment in the hearts of these Liberian leaders to be some of the first in their country to be a part of raising up a generation of African missionaries to reach the unreached peoples on the continent.  (See the following post for more details:  http://reachglobalafrica.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-initiatives-for-new-year.html)  In the past couple of months a second group of students have started the same Missionary Equipping Course in Monrovia.

These exciting developments in Liberia are part of the vision God has given our ReachGlobal Africa Division LeadTeam for the next decade.  We are seeking to develop four multi-cultural mission equipping centers in Africa.  Our desire is to see centers launched in West, Central, East and Southern Africa.  The two courses in Monrovia are part of our first center in Liberia.  We are also moving forward to see centers launched in the next three years in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania and Kinshasa, DR Congo.  These centers will be an essential part for coming alongside our African church partners as they desire to equip and deploy a generation of African missionaries in the next decade.  


Would you join us in praying for God's clear direction and provision for these Missionary Equipping Centers and that the Lord will powerfully use the missionaries that will be equipped over the next decade to reach the more than 260 million unreached Africans with the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Friday, March 09, 2012

Great Projects in Congo that are Making a Difference

Today as I have been reflecting on the online phenomenon that the Kony 2012 has become I read an encouraging article on a great ministry project in Congo.  Check out the following link for an encouraging story that is making a major difference in one of the poorest places on earth.  I've traveled there numerous times in the past six years and can tell you from personal experience that what God is doing in Congo is an exciting thing!


http://reachglobalnews.org/answer-for-poverty-its-in-the-bag/


In addition, I'd also encourage you to check out the following link to a ministry that was started by some high school young women from Boone, Iowa.  You'll find out how the next generation is making a difference!


http://www.kidsforcongo.com/ 

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Hottest Link on the Internet

I just spent the last half hour watching the latest video from the folks at Invisible Children entitled Kony 2012.  It is the hottest viral link on the Internet and is one that people in Free Churches all across the country are watching.  You can check it out at the following links:

Yahoo News Story:

Invisible Children Website:

As I watched it my heart was deeply moved.  I have many friends from both the EFC of Sudan and the EFC of Uganda who have lived through this nightmare over the past three decades.  I first was exposed to the horrors of the LRA and Joseph Kony in 2002 when I began a three year ministry project of training young Sudanese pastors from the EFC of Sudan most of whom were living in refugee camps in northern Uganda.  They told horror stories of what Kony and the LRA did to their families and friends.  Many shared of having to flee into the bush in the middle of the night, the husbands and older children going one direction and the wives and younger children another.  This scenario happened sometimes two or three times a month during the years that they lived in the refugee camps. 

The original Invisible Children video released several years ago was a powerful description of what my friends experienced in Uganda.  The Lord used in among youth and young adults in Free Churches to generate some encouraging ministry outreach.

This newest video has suddenly become the rage of the Internet with the number of search hits yesterday exceeding those for the new iPad.  In reflecting on the video and the online phenomenon it has initiated, I’ve found myself convinced of the fact that the Kony 2012 video shows how something with a compelling cause, clear outcomes, concise action steps and a defined timeline can make a major difference in the world today as we make use of the technology and social networking available to us.

My prayer is that we can capture some of the same passion for the ministry initiatives that the Lord has put on our hearts for Africa.  If you have some ideas of how that could happen or if you are willing to help make it happen I'd love to hear from you.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

5 Key Characteristics of the Church

The local churches we desire to see multiplied across Africa should be…

1.   Healthy:  This includes healthy theology, healthy leadership (spiritually, emotionally, relationally), and making healthy disciples.

2.   Indigenous:  Indigenous churches are churches that reflect the culture of the people among whom the church is planted, while also being thoroughly biblical in their practices.  

3.   Self-supporting:  Self-supporting means that the indigenous church is not dependent on outside funds to be planted or to exist.  It is based on the conviction that Christ designed the church to exist in any culture, any socio-economic and political climate, and to do so in such a way that it can organically reproduce itself regardless of the structures in which it exists.

4.   Reproducing:  Healthy churches reproduce themselves.  God designed the church to reproduce itself organically, intentionally and rapidly—once the gospel takes hold. Healthy churches can do that.

5.   Interdependent:  ReachGlobal believes that congregations are healthiest when they are in fellowship with and are cooperating with other like-minded congregations. Thus, we choose to work with groups that value interdependence rather than independence. Interdependent churches work together to bring the gospel to those around them, to train workers, and to do missions together.

Friday, March 02, 2012

All People to All People All Over the World


Missions has changed in wonderful ways during my lifetime.  The greatest growth of the church in the last decade has been in the “global south and east”, which is making a major impact on how we do missions around the world.  The Lord is working in dynamic ways expanding His kingdom and raising up a new generation of missionaries from the developing world.  It is no longer “the west reaching the rest”, but it is rather “all people to all people all over the world.”

The church in the south and east is fast becoming a major sender of missionaries to the least reached peoples of the world.  That is certainly true in Africa.  In my travels around the continent I am seeing a growing passion among African church leaders to be raising up, equipping and sending the next generation of missionaries both to least reached peoples around them and around the world.

This is why two of our Ten Year Goals are to see:
  •  Every national partnering movement, church, and organization multiplying healthy churches among all people as we come alongside of them
  •  Every national church partnership is a missionary sending movement

The heart of the church in Africa resonates with these goals.  However, there are major hurdles before us as we seek to come alongside the church in Africa to partner with them in this new missionary movement. 

The first hurdle comes from the history of ministry in the developing world.  Argentine leader Daniel Bianchi gives a good overview of the problem in the following excerpt from his article “Scripture and the Global South Church”:

The church in the South tends to look at herself through the eyes of the North. For centuries, the message to the churches in the South has been something like “You can’t do it. You are too young. You don’t have the resources. You need help”. When you convince someone that he needs help you also convince him that he can’t help others, somebody said. The church in the South needs to regard herself as valuable, capable and responsible as the rest of the church. The church in the South ought to realize that she has much to offer. For many the lack of financial resources, expertise and technology causes her to feel like a “second class partner”. The church of the South has much to give in personnel, commitment, passion, suffering, etc.

The second hurdle arises from the economic challenges the church in Africa is facing on all fronts.  There are young committed leaders who are ready to go to the least reached peoples on the continent.  However, they are struggling with the question of how they will provide for their families as they go.  Over the past 12 months my colleagues in ReachAfrica have trained over 1,000 African church planters many of whom are ready to go to least reached communities on the continent.  They are constantly faced with the challenge of how to support their families.  This is an issue that we are urgently working with them to solve.

Some in America today are saying that the church in the west should be supporting these African missionaries and providing the funds for them to go.  After all we have financial resources in abundance and they have willing missionaries in abundance.  That sounds good, but raising support from the church in the west is at best a short term partial solution that limits church planting movements from starting where multiplication is truly taking place.  In addition, it can lead to western “ownership” of the missions endeavor.  As one of my mission leader friends told me several years ago, “Whoever controls the money really owns the ministry.”  We want the church in Africa to own this new missionary movement!

I am convinced that we must rather be looking for ways to come alongside the church in Africa to see indigenous church planting and funding models that will work there.  We must look at business as mission and bi-vocational models that will work both in rural an urban African contexts.  Ministries that will multiply over time must be indigenous, reproducible and sustainable using local resources.  This is one of the biggest challenges facing us today. 

I will be meeting with our Africa Division LeadTeam in two weeks and this issue will be one of the main topics of our discussions.  Please pray with us that the Lord will give us wisdom as we seek appropriate ways to use the resources God has entrusted to us to partner with the church in Africa in order to see healthy churches and ministries multiplied among all people on the continent.