I usually email a weekly update on our ministry to people who have offered to pray for us and want more personal and up-to-date info than what we can provide on the blog.

Today I discovered my email distribution list was wiped out. Until we get that fixed, I’d like to post a modified version of the update I tried to email to folks today. Enjoy!

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A prayer update from your missionaries in East Hollywood (E-Ho), Los Angeles, CA:

Dear Prayer Team,

Wow, the weeks flew by! My apologies for no updates… I’ve been very busy with job hunting. As you know, this July we go from full-time salary to half-time salary as a missionary family (and then to zero salary by January 2010). Please keep us in your prayers as I look for a “regular” job and my family makes this transition from being funded missionaries to self-supporting missionaries in LA. Also please pray for our relationships with supporting churches, as we continue partnering with them in other (non-financial) ways!

How we’re doing:

Meredith and I praise God we celebrated 13 years of marriage last month! We left the kids with Ed and Katie and stayed at a nice bed and breakfast on the coast. Praise God that Ed and Katie are about to celebrate 9 years in July!  Now it’s our turn to watch Ed and Katie’s kids while they go celebrate!  Pray for Meredith and me – this summer we will decide if we’re going to keep our kids in public school or home school them next school year. Pray for our community of faith to trust God as we all go through lots of life transitions and face uncertainty with our finances/jobs.  Especially pray for our children, neighbors and co-workers as they watch us go through times of uncertainty – these become great discipling moments.

How the ministry is doing:

• Bad news: We returned from Asia to find nearly every family with whom we had studied God’s Word is no longer interested in journeying spiritually with us. This is due in large part to a group that has stepped up its presence in the neighborhood. There is heartache involved in gospel planting; it hurts to see people come and go.
• Good news: Yet there also is joy in watching others find hope and deliverance in Christ. Despite this setback we can see God is using us to show people what he is like and to attract people to his Son. For example, a grandma and her grown daughter continue to study God’s Word with Meredith. A school mom who adamantly said she doesn’t like religion can’t get enough time hanging out with the women in our group.  She has begun to pray and study God’s Word with them.  We continue to find people really want to spend more time with us.  They know something is different about us.  They just don’t know (yet) that it’s Jesus who is making the difference.  You’ll recall Wendy’s gangster friend Talia (not her real name) was arrested. While Talia was in jail, Wendy helped take care of her little son. Talia is out of jail now and her heart unfortunately is hardened to God right now. Yet other neighbors noticed. Wendy’s home has become a safe haven for their kids, too. During the school year Wendy had a homework club in her apartment. Now that school is out of session, we will find different ways to engage these homework club kids and their families.
  
• Interns: We are excited about a newly married couple who will be joining our community of faith as interns for the next nine months.  More about this wonderful couple in future updates.
  
• Pray for our Summer Outreach: We will be adding different kinds of outreach activities to our repertoire in addition to what we have been doing, to meet people in different ways and see what other responses people will make to the message of Christ we are living out and telling.

Thank you for lifting up the people of E-Ho in prayer!

Categories: stories, stuff to pray for
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One thing that has been helpful for me as we seek to lay the foundation for an obedience-based faith movement (a.k.a. Church Planting Movement) is acknowledging the myth of “rapid” reproduction.

My mind is blown by the exponential growth of church planting movements around the globe.  David Watson reminds onlookers that it took 2 to 4 years in India, for example, to get to the point where existing social units surrendered to Christ and began multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches.  I think it will take longer in the U.S. given other obstacles we face here.  (David Watson has written a brief article on the myth of rapid reproduction on his blog.  To read it, click here.)

The church planting movements around the world give the appearance of rapid growth because of the exponential growth, not the reproduction.  Laying a foundation for such a movement means years of investment in the training of leaders.  Reproduction therefore is slow.  With the exception of divine accelerations, it is always slow.

Categories: the how
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The participants of the training event I attended this week were asked to watch the “CPM Awareness”* videos at www.cpmtr.org prior to coming.  However, some participants didn’t watch them, so they’re going to go do that when they get home.  If you haven’t seen this 4-part video series, you can view it here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.  Warning: This CPM Awareness series is 6 hours long yet well worth it.  My advice from experience is that it is better to watch a little at a time (45 to 90 minute increments) and discuss it as you go with a spouse, teammate, or small group of friends who share your interest. 

If you are interested in reaching your community for Christ, go start watching some of those videos!  And if you start trying out this stuff in your own community, write to me through the Contacts Page.  I’ll be interested to know what you tried out, how it’s going, and what you’re learning.  We can learn from each other.

(*) “CPM” = church planting movement (I like to call it gospel planting movement).

Categories: the how, the why
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Here’s are two thoughts I keep having as I attend a Church Planting Movements training in Dallas this week: 

1.  We’ve had false starts in our ministry.  We make mistakes and continue to learn from them (the best way).  One thing that stands out to me is this: God plants churches, not us.  We plant the gospel and train people in obedience-based discipleship. But the Holy Spirit convicts hearts and transforms a group into a church. 

2. Another is this: Can the CPM approach be done in the West?  At the CPM training event they said to do no more “extraction evangelism.”  Don’t extract people from their existing communities by pulling pull individuals who don’t know each other together to form a new social unit and call it church.  Rather go to their existing social units (households/affinity groups) to plant the gospel among them and they will become the new churches as they discover who God is and learn to listen and obey him.  To read a story about how this CPM approach being done in a communal culture, read here.

I can see the wisdom in working with natural/existing communities.  This way they aren’t dependent on me/an outsider to get things started.  Natural communities already have long-standing relationships that can withstand the stresses of learning to obey Christ and live out costly discipleship.  Groups learn better than individuals – they have group memory and accountability.  Existing communities already have some form of group accountability (however dysfunctional) and leadership in place, and these structures can be redeemed as groups learn to follow Christ together. 

What other advantages can you see to working with natural communities (vs pulling individuals out of their relationships to come “worship with us”)? 

But I’m yet to see it working well in the U.S.  Has anyone had experience with this in less communal cultures?  Can it be done in a fractured, individualistic Western society like the U.S?

Any concerns or potential disadvantages you see with this approach? 

What questions does it raise for you?

Categories: the how
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If you are called to be a Christian leader/pastor/missionary/etc, that does not automatically mean God is asking you to get paid for it. 

“Who should the church pay to serve?”  This is the question Neil Cole is thoughtfully addressing from a biblical point of view in his current series of blog posts. If you are considering a career as a full-time paid minister or missionary, PLEASE take the 10 minutes to read this first!   Lives will be affected by your choice. 

To read Neil’s posts so far on this important topic, click below:

Who Should the Church Pay to Serve?

Who Should the Church Pay: The role of the apostle

Who Should the Church Pay: The true widow

Who Should the Church Pay: Double honor to the preachers and teachers

Who Should the Church Pay: What about pastors?

Who Should the Church Pay: Start with nothing but God!

Categories: the how
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This morning I dropped my sons off at their primary center and saw a body wrapped in a U.S. flag in the alley next to the school – the path my family often takes to walk to/from school.  Police were already there and have been there all day.  A woman in her mid-30s.  Investigators are treating it as homicide.  No more details yet.

I wonder who she was and who will be missing her.  This is so horrible… 

http://www.ktla.com/landing_news/?EXCLUSIVE-Womans-Body-Found-Wrapped-in-A=1&blockID=238018&feedID=171

Categories: stories
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Sometimes we feel ill-equipped for this mission, indeed without God we are.  Yet with God we bring a lot more with us than we realize…

This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some learning experiences God gave us during our city dwelling from 1996-2006 that helped to shape us for the way of life we’re living now (2007-present):

Show me more… »

Categories: stories
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