Reachable! Bible Translation & Language Learning Pays

The Taliabo Story!

Why Complicate Church Planting? Just tell the story!

".... the oldest man in the room, about 70 years old, spoke up: `We planted 40 churches this past year.'
That blew me away! I crossed the room and sat at his feet. ~Brother, I need to learn from you. Teach me about church planting.'
He looked puzzled an replied, `It's not hard. Every morning my great niece reads to me from the bible for one hour - I can't read so she reads for me. Then I think about what she read until lunch. I think about what it means and what God wants our family to do. When everyone comes in from the field for lunch, I tell them what God said through His Word to our family. Then I tell them to tell everyone they know what God said to out family that day. And they do. That's all.'" (Bhojpuri man from North India)

(" A Movement of God Among the Bhojpuro" David L Watson & Paul Watson. Perspectives on the World christian Movement. William Carey library, Ralph D winter, 2009, pg 699)

How Repeatable is our Strategy for Poor Nationals?

“The churches that the apostles and Paul planted were, for the most part, light and lean `House churches’ without a great deal of institutional trappings… The most effective missionaries are multiplying churches which are very simplified.”

Stephen Hawthorne (Perspectives On the World Christian Movement Study Guide, William Carey, 2009, pg 50)

Principles our mission measures every strategy by. Every Plan must be;

1) Simple: Any plan must be easily remembers and orally repeated on no more than five fingers, without writing it down. If a 500 page church planting manual is required it's to complicated for a country with an adult literacy rate of 13%.

2) Economical/Cost Effective: Local Christian's often can't afford cars, and motor bikes, amps and speakers, or projectors. On a strategy "wagon wheel" we westerners are only one spoke(of 5 or 6) supporting no more than any other spoke, of the required participation to make a plan happen. If it requires more than the spokes can offer, the plan is scrapped for one that is economical enough. We are not willing to drain all the resources on one church plant. It must be economical enough that we can be planting many at the same time.

3) Easily Repeated: By this we mean a plan for church planting should be the plan for the whole body. Not just church leaders. Literate or not, young or old, the plan must work for ordinary church members too. We practice the "Priesthood of All Believers" Every plan must be simple and economical enough that church members look at what we are doing and say. "Hey, I can do that!" "Hey, I have something to offer here!" A can do spirit is developed within the whole body. Sharing the gospel and gathering people into churches is not merely the task of "leaders" or "Elite Professional", the commission is for all.

How Should Missionaries Choose Their Standard of Living?

"Adapting oneself to a new culture and worldview is never easy, and it does not happen automatically. Due to globalization, in many large cities of the world missionaries have the option of living in a quasi-Western bubble. They shop in Western-styled grocery stores, wear up-to-date Western fashions, maybe even take their kids to McDonalds on a regular basis.
The unpleasant truth is missionaries who uncritically follow this kind of lifestyle are unlikely to become bi-cultural.
However, rather than picking on the obvious extreme cases, this should serve as a reminder to all of us that we need to stop letting transnational corporations dictate our behavior. A missionary’s choice of lifestyle is just that—a choice—and one that we should be much more deliberate about since it sets the tone for much of what goes on in the rest of our ministry. I am not asserting it is morally wrong for missionaries to live a thoroughly Western lifestyle in the Majority World—this is not my call to make. But I am saying that such a choice can be massively harmful to the cause of Christ because it distorts the meaning of the gospel."

("Decoupling Missionary Advance From Western Culture",Gene Daniels, EMQ OCT 2009, pg422)

How Missionaries Dress is a Critical Choice!

I have been there as a former minister. You get to the mission field and are so delighted to be free from wear a suit and tie. However, there are often the equivalents in new cultures. More than that, there categories of deficiency we need to learn in the host culture. Like it or not we must adapt. Here is a great illustration

"I know a hard-working missionary who had some success in winning young college men to Christ in a small Muslim city. He is well aware of the need to apply biblical insight and sound theology to his goal of developing local leadership for the church he is planting. However, he seems completely unaware of the strange spectacle he makes of himself as he bicycles around this same town in a helmet and bright-colored spandex bike-wear. Furthermore, the sight of his mountain bike and culturally inappropriate clothing is just one facet of his lifestyle that screams of contemporary Western culture. Despite several years on the field, he seems completely unaware that his behavior is providing his Muslim neighbors with irrefutable evidence that the gospel and “offensive Western culture’ are one and the same. The real problem is not his choice of attire, but that he is unintentionally confirming the warning repeated in mosques across Central Asia that Christianity represents a horrible clash of cultures and must be avoided at all costs."
("Decoupling Missionary Advance From Western Culture",Gene Daniels, EMQ OCT 2009, pg422)

Testimony Steve Saint End of The Spear

Testimony Steve Saint End of The Spear (Get some tissue!)

Avoiding Dependancy Good Example!

Avoiding Dependency (Example of Waodani - Beyond The Gates of Splendor)

Reasons for Global Mission Celebration...... Yet!

"As we come to the present day we have to be stunned by the magnitude of the movement to Christ. Never  before have so many people followed Christ. Never before has Christ been named in so many languages and obeyed faithfully in such a myriad of cultural styles. Never before has Christ been so viciously hated or His servants so widely persecuted. Yet never before has Christ been so openly worshiped."

(Perspectives on The World Christain Movement: Study Guide, Steven Hawthorne. William Carey Library, 2009, pg93)

Can we Pray or Sing "God Bless ........" All Nations?

"We in the west still struggle with cultural superiority. We are indoctrinated to believe that living in America is the best possible option. We are told that this nations is (or was) a God-fearing nation and that is why we sing, `God Bless America' but do we think or pray or sing, `God Bless China" or India or Saudi Arabia? This can make adjustment to another place difficult"

(In Pursuit of Effective Models of Mission". Greg H Parsons, Missions Frontiers, Sept-Oct 2009 pg49)

What Are "People Movements"

Excellent video explaining the concept of "People Movements".