Pray for Natalie (not her real name) and her household.  For some reason Natalie liked studying the Bible anywhere but in her own apartment.  We come across this sometimes.  People feel insecure about letting us see just how messy or chaotic their lives really are.  But last week Katie and Meredith said “No, we’re studying the Bible in your home today.” 

“Alright,” Natalie agreed.  As they sat at her table reading scripture together, an adult family member was next to them passed out on the couch.  Natalie got to witness that God’s Word can engage her anywhere, no matter what her household is like, and God’s people won’t judge them.  By going onto Natalie’s turf, a blessing of peace came into her household that day.    

Categories: stories, stuff to pray for
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I’ve had very disturbing dreams since we hosted the workshop last weekend on laying the foundation for church planting movements.  Two nights ago I dreamed I was killed for my faith.  Then I dreamed I was imprisoned for my faith here in Los Angeles.  Come to find out my friends in Way of Life Village have been having similar dreams and thoughts.

Categories: stuff to pray for
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Here are photos from last night. Ed and Katie had an idea that before our weekly village gathering we could take the kids outside to pick up trash and take a stab at getting rid of all those Christmas trees drying up along the sidewalk. Some neighbors expressed their thanks and brought out their green trash cans for us to put the tree branches and trunks into when the city garbage truck comes today.

Categories: stories
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Stretch your light
Into the darkened corners
Of my heart, Lord
Reveal what needs to be changed
Scrub away the things that hinder glory
Retell my story
Make a new servant out of me. 

O illuminate my eyes
Fill my whole body with your light
And like a lamp on its stand
I will cast your light on this land. 

Send me out
To the broken hearts
Of your city, Lord
To reveal the hope of your Son
Use every part of me to your glory
I’ll share your story
And tell others what you’ve done for me.

O illuminate my eyes
Fill my whole body with your light
And like a lamp on its stand
I will cast your light on this land. 

[Inspired by Matthew 5:14-16; 6:22-23.]

Categories: stuff to pray for
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Here is an event in E-Ho you can pray for.  This weekend we are hosting a “Planting the Gospel / CPM” mini-workshop for people in the Greater Los Angeles Area. To help you pray, here is some info about the workshop I adapted from David Watson’s blog and material by CityTeam Ministries, who is facilitating the workshop:

Planting the Gospel / Church Planting Movements
Mini-Workshop
January 9-10, 2009
East Hollywood, CA

Breakthrough Stories

Stories are coming in of breakthroughs in Central and South America, Europe, the USA, India, China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. We are struck by how the vast majority of the impact is coming from “normal” people, not the paid missionaries or pastors.

For example, God used David and Jan Watson to train indigenous leaders to start over 40,000 churches over the past 15 years in a place known as “a graveyard for missions and missionaries” in Northern India. Today there are over 2 million baptized believers thriving in that region. The Watsons’ experience and experiences similar to theirs are written about in David Garrison’s book Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming A Lost World (www.churchplantingmovements.com).

In each of these breakthroughs people are using simple Biblical principles and methods to see people become disciples of Jesus and groups of believers formed into churches that then reach new people and start new churches. We have invited Joe Hernandez, VP of North American Church Planting with CityTeam Ministries in San Jose, CA, who specializes in equipping people to use these simple Biblical principles and methods, to facilitate a workshop for those of us who are passionate about seeing breakthroughs in our regions of the U.S. Other presenters include Mark Hooper of Missions Resource Network and myself (in an apprentice trainer role).

About the Workshop

Not easy, but simple. “It is called Church Planting Movement training, but it could be called training on how Jesus gave all of us simple and effective ways to reach lost people so they can reach more lost people – if we could just avoid letting our traditions get in the way.”  – David Watson

“A lifestyle, not a program.” This workshop is not about developing a program or finding a ‘silver bullet’ for your ministry. It is about developing a lifestyle that reproduces disciples, leaders and churches as a normal part of being and doing church. Participants will walk away with practical tools they can begin using right away.

God-dependent. Only the Holy Spirit can produce a church planting movement! Humans can plant the Gospel which God revealed in Jesus Christ. This workshop equips participants with ways to become more God-dependent as we learn to effectively access and make disciples of people dying without Jesus.

Who Can Come?

WE ARE FULL!  SORRY, NO MORE SEATS AVAILABLE.

This workshop is for people whose primary motivation for starting new churches is to reach people without Jesus. They must have a missionary reason for starting new churches. We meet lots of people who start new churches because they are frustrated with their current one, and they fill their new church with mostly frustrated Christians. We are looking for people who are passionate for the harvest, are open to different (yet biblically-based) ways of doing church, and will put this into practice.  We will have 12 to 15 people (no more than 25) to allow for more dialogue and deeper learning.  Participants are strongly encouraged to bring a spouse or teammate to process this together.

Schedule

Fri., Jan. 9^th 5:30pm to 10pm (includes dinner and breaks)

Sat., Jan. 10^th 8:30am to 9pm (includes meal times and breaks)

Pre-Workshop Preparation Required

To get the most out of this workshop, we are asking all participants to do two things BEFOREHAND:

(1) SPIRITUAL PREPARATION:

Pray for God’s MISSING ONES that the workshop participants will lead to Christ.

Pray participants will be moved by the Holy Spirit to ACT as a result of the workshop.

Pray also for spiritual protection over the workshop participants and presenters.

(2) CONCEPTUAL PREPARATION:

During the month prior to the workshop, all participants must watch the free six-hour video series entitled ”CPM Awareness Seminar” by David Watson at http://www.cpmtr.org/?q=taxonomy/term/10. On this web page there are four sessions listed in reverse order: 4, 3, 2, 1. Watch them in order: 1, 2, 3, 4. You may want to set aside a handful of nights in advance to view and discuss this material with your teammate or spouse (we find it’s best to break it up since it’s lengthy). This will lay a great foundation for us before we meet together!

Thank you for keeping this weekend’s training event in your prayers!

Categories: stuff to pray for, the how, the why
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When I tell Christian leaders about the way we study God’s Word with people (primarily via Discovery Bible Studies), one of their concerns is that we are not imparting enough of our knowledge to new believers, but just leaving them to fend for themselves.  Yes, to some extent this is true.  We want them to learn how to lean on Jesus to be their leader, not us.  But we don’t stop discipling them.

Teaching new disciples to depend on God’s Word and his Holy Spirit for guidance does not mean I never get to tell them my opinion.  I do share lessons learned from my own experiences.  Spiritual authority has an importance role to play, and it is to be distinguished from positional authority, expert authority, or even relational authority. Those of us in Way of Life Village are learning this as we go.

On several occasions a new believer I’ll call “Hector” has asked me, “I know I’m supposed to depend on God to be my teacher, but what do you think I should do in this situation?” I have to chuckle to myself. Sometimes, though not every time, I have told Hector what I think is the best course of action, but not until he wrestled first with God’s Word and came up with ideas of his own. Then I might offer an idea he hasn’t yet considered. Still, there are many more times that I have withheld my opinion so he could learn from applying his own ideas (which sometimes are better than what I would have done).  My goal is not to leave him vulnerable but to get him to seek direction from the Source, that is, Jesus Christ himself.  That can’t happen if I’m always inserting my two cents or suggesting a ‘better’ way to get things done. Yikes, if I’ve taught him to depend on me for everything, then I have made him vulnerable!  Making disciples is a LOT like raising children in that regard.

This is especially important in the early years of a new believer’s discipleship to Christ. If Hector sees from our mentoring relationship that it’s all about the Phil Show, then when he mentors someone else he will make it all about the Hector Show. I led Hector to Jesus Christ, not myself. As I continue to mentor him it needs to stay that way. And now Hector will lead someone else to Jesus Christ, too.

Categories: the how
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