Church Planting Discussion

“Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.”.

Incredibly I forgot a first: I saw the king yesterday. My first king to see in person. This country is the last kingdom in Africa and thus, the last country with a king. My friend M. and I were on our way to meet Husain in the service of the King of Kings when we noticed all the main street was shut down to traffic and a crowd was gathering on the sides of the street. What seemed like hundreds of cops started blowing their whistles rapidly. A stream of black Mercedes followed surrounded by police motorcycles. Then came the king. Surrounded by about 20 motorcycles his black Mercedes was specially fitted with a sun roof that allowed him to stand halfway out of the car and wave to all the peasents. His car was also surrounded on all four corners by 4 other black Mercedes with the two back doors open and body gaurds standing with Suits flying in the wind. Really quite the spectical. He is not my king but I was very impressed.

I can’t imagine the feelings that will come over me someday when we all stand in the precence of Our King and worship him. When I am able to touch his hands and feet and lay any crowns I will have obtained at his feet. It’s going to be awesome!

Couple “firsts” to be excited about today:
1. Preached today in Arabic on the Lamb of God as described by the Old Testament prophets (Thanks Tony Howeth for some good pointers on the subject). First time that I preached from multiple passages (about and first time I preached 40 minutes. (not sure if that is a good thing or not). It took my about 6 hours of study to make it happen. We had a small crowd of only 8 people so it was more of a group Bible study than a straight monologue.

2. A few weeks ago I reported on a mass email we sent out to 1,000 Moroccans thanks to Stephanie, an Intern here with us from South Carolina. A number of people responded asking for a Jesus Film. One of those was from our city, a man named Husain. Today a believer named M. who is from here and growing leaps and bounds, and myself went to visit Husain in order to deliver his Jesus Film personally. Now, if you know anything about missions in a Muslim country that is a big move for him as a new believer. Neither he nor I had ever made a “cold call” like this before. Everyone has heard the stories of under-cover police or Muslim extremists.

As we looked for the mans address we walked through the Suq (Arab Market) as if God was guiding us since we had no idea where this street was. Within a short time my friend M. looked up and recognized the name of the street. We found that the address was a second floor internet cafe. I waited downstairs (like the lazy American usually does) while M. went upstairs and inquired of the man by name. When M. came downstairs he was laughing. “He has a big Muslim beard and dress” he laughed. (My brother calls it a “Man Dress”.) Now a beard here almost always signifies a Muslim radical. M. didn’t run though so neither did I. The man who turned out to be the owner of internet cafe came down and stood nervously as my M. introduced us to each other. We thanked him for his request. He kept repeating, “I never expected anybody to come visit me.” He told us what he really wants is a Bible to learn about what the other prophets said. “Why do you want it since the Koran holds all you need to know?” asked M. “I want to learn. The Koran doesn’t tell me much about the other prophets.” So we took his phone number and left him the Jesus Film, all on the street outside his business.

As we walked away we prayed for him. M. told me that it was the first time that he had witnessed without being scared at all. He said something that I love and think ought to be preached all over the Muslim world: “I was thinking, if I accepted Christ, he saved me, and now I serve the true, all-powerful God, what do I have to fear of these Muslims. There is no fear in faith.”

Pray for M. Pray for Husain.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPKM1gWCc54]

I. Consider the following weaknesses.

a. The weakness of past missionary work was not leaving an indigenous church!

b. The present day weakness is “one church–one term or more missionaries”

c. Many are asking the question if all the missionary is going to accomplish is one church a few dozen people etc in one term wouldn’t it be better to support a national who will work for much less and do about the same amount of work.

d. By the term leader of leaders we mean someone who will find and train others to do the work so that in about the same amount of time he will have several doing the work of planting churches and not just himself.

Check out the good news about today’s service at Vision.

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We want to beg your prayers for 22 South Koreans being held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The new government is under extreme pressure now as they try to not negotiate with terrorists. The leader of the group was already shot to death. Militant Islam is Islam the way Mohammed meant it to be. We must all get involved in the very real spiritual battle of sharing the love of Christ with the 1.3 billion Muslims in this world. God wills it. We must surrender to his will and obey.

Afghanistan is #10 in the World Watch List for persecution of Christians. That is down from it’s #3 pre-war ranking.

Click here to read the story.

Once upon a time there was a Little Red Hen who owned a wheat field. “Who will help me harvest the wheat?” she asked.
“Not I. ” said the pig. - “I don’t know how.”
“Not I,” said the cow. “I’m too Clumsy.”
“Not I,” said the dog. “I’m busy with some other things.”

So the Little Red Hen did it herself.
“Who will help me grind the wheat into flour?” she asked.
“Not I,” said the pig. “That is another vocation in which I’m untrained.”
“Not I,” said the cow. “You could do it much more efficiently.”

“Not I,” said the dog. “I’d love to, but I’m involved in some matters of greater urgency. Some other time, perhaps.”
So she did it herself.

“Who will help me make some bread?” asked the Little Red Hen.
“Not I,”said the pig. “Nobody ever taught me how.”
“Not I,” said the cow. “You’re more experience and could do it in half the time.”
“Not I,” said the dog. “I’ve made some other plans for the afternoon. But I’ll help you next time.”
So she did it herself.

That evening, when guests arrived for her big dinner party, the Little Red Hen had nothing to serve them except bread. She had been so busy doing work that could have been done by others that she had forgotten to plan a main course, prepare a dessert, or even get out the silverware. The evening was a disaster, and she lived unhappily ever after.

MORAL: A good leader will find a way to involve others to the extent of their ability. To do the job yourself is the chicken way out.

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Micah just left us on Monday. I can honestly say I have never seen a person change as much as he did in a six week period. His fellow students commented that he doesn’t seem like the same person. Check out what God did in his life:

“I came to North Africa as a Project North Africa Intern for the wrong reasons. I did not expect anything to happen in my heart while I was over here. However God has worked through the trip to open my eyes to what he would have me to do with my life.

Before coming to North Africa I could have been described as a shy person. I have learned however that the only way to be a real winner in life is to allow God to work through our weaknesses. As an intern God has helped me to overcome my fear of speaking in front of people. I was able to teach an English class and to preach twice. I witnessed to my first person here, a Muslim named Hicham. The same day that I met Hicham he took off work to come and speak to me more. We spoke for three hours the first night and I was able to witness to him. Since then we have spoken a couple more times and I have been able to witness to him some more. He started to read the Bible that I gave him and he is almost through the New Testament. I was able to make some really good friends of the fellow students and of the North African people.

I was able to see much of the country and I saw the darkness of Islam more than ever before. I was able to go to attend a North African church and see the people here worship God even though they could be persecuted for it. This convicted me about my lack being an open witness of the gospel in one of the freest countries of the world. The Lord used the missionaries to show me what it is like to be a missionary. The Lord has used this trip to help me to see what it is like to teach people. That it is a blessing if it is done right and for the right reasons. If we do not tell share the gospel when we have the opportunity we are not obeying Christ’s commission. I now have a very strong desire to impact the world with my life because I was able to have a small impact in a few people’s lives as a PNA Intern. The Lord has used this trip to open my eyes to the needs of the whole world for the gospel.”

I am finishing reading the 250 page Biography on Samuel Zwemmer. Wow! I feel like a bum. He spent 60 years of his life selflessly serving Christ amongst Muslims. He wrote his first book “Arabia” at 33. Not TOO impressive, right. Except it was 450 hand written pages. He went on to write over 50 books as well as being the editor of “The Moslem World” quarterly for 25 years. He from America to South Africa to China surveying the Muslims of the world. He lost two daughters on the Arabian Peninsula. He preached in English, Dutch, and Arabic.

Anyway, amazing guy. Toward the end of his missionary ministry while in his 60’s he was addressing a group of missionaries in China. There was a lot of talk, like there always is amongst the young and ambitious, about all the mistakes in methods the “old missionaries” had developed. Now, we should always be questioning the systems to make sure we are getting the desired result BUT Dr. Zwemmer expressed what could not be truer almost 100 years later:

“In rethinking missions, it is not the want of new methods that should give us the most anxiety. The modern missionary needs to listen more to the ‘voice behind thee saying, this is the way walk ye in it.” We none of us like to listen to back seat driving but it was what we needed most. We shold listen in these days to the voice of those days, to the voice of those in the back seat, the early missionary pioneers, the apostles who succeeded where we have failed. An analysis of the lives of these great men who first opened varikous countries to the Gospel, revealed that they possessed several qualities sometimes absent from the modern missionary. Notable amongst these qualities are: Vision, knowledge of the language and people, persistence, passion for souls and ability to endure lonliness. It is a new man rather than a new method that is most wanting.”

Ouch. That stings. But true.

David Beer in the first chapter says “the potential of the local church, whatever its size, is enormous and unfulfilled.” We need to unleash the potential of the church which “implies that its gifts and power lie dormant.”

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