Ideas on Life Change and Leadership

Lessons from India: Part 2

The picture below is of a church that meets on the roof of a house in the middle of a rice field.  The young single guy who started and pastors this church was a part of our training outside of Purnia, Bihar.  There is a healthy diversity of men, women, and children who are a part of this church.

One of the great challenges we face in the West is our narrow definition of what it takes to be a church.  Too often, we start with some concept of facility needs.  This picture reminds me that the church is PEOPLE.  Anywhere the people of the Way of Jesus get together to celebrate Him and challenge one another, there you find a CHURCH.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.  Romans 16:3-5a 

The CHURCH is not where we meet…the CHURCH is who we are.

Speak Your Mind:  Leave a comment that addresses this question – “What could happen if we thought beyond the four walls of our facility?”

Lessons from India: Part 1

Our Director of Worship and Community Impact, Jeff Johnson, and I traveled to India from September 23-October 3 to train church planters in two cities in the Indian state of Bihar.  Over the next several weeks, I’m going to post some of the “Lessons from India” that God is using to challenge me personally.

Here’s a picture of one of the groups of planters.  The youngest is a 14 year old girl.  Challenging!

Jesus spoke these words to His disciples as he made His way toward the cross: “I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop.”  John 12:24 (HCSB)

This passage is challenging me to some new levels of spiritual abandon.  Its message was one of the strongest that the Holy Spirit drove home while on the trip.

One of the most catalytic documents that outlines why what is happening in church planting movements (CPM) around the world is titled FOUR FIELDS OF KINGDOM GROWTH, written by Nathan and Keri Shank.  Click on the title to download a free copy.  Here’s a quote from page 6:

In our years of service we have seen many from the West enter fields in Asia.  We have observed a common barrier.  Most come with a vision for their abilities and efforts.  This may have many causes which we will not discuss here.  We have come to realize much of our role is to help them “hit the wall” by realizing their own efforts or abilities will not accomplish the Great Commission.  For some this is a painful process as years are spent pursuing personal fruit and gain only to become disillusioned with the reality a single life’s work does not make a dent in nations like India.

We must not see ourselves as the strategy.  Rather, we must take up the vision of our Lord, Who told His disciples in John 14,

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing.  He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

The point being offered here is not a celebration of doing greater than our Master.  Rather, the vision for our own disciple’s fruit surpassing that of our ministries is essential.  This vision for propelling others is the only means of changing a nation or completing the commission.

Here’s to dying to my self-interests so that others will be launched into the harvest to do the greater works God has prepared for them to do.

Speak Your Mind:  Leave a comment about your own challenges to die.