Missions

Great Commission Living Is A Way of Life

Five children seems an extraordinarily high price to pay for any ministry, much less one that seemed as fruitless as the Goforth’s appeared at the time. What could possibly have motivated Jonathan and Rosalind to suffer such devastating loss and count it but a small thing in their service to Christ? Perhaps the answer lies in the words Jonathan would later inscribed in the flyleaf of his bible. “In all things seek to know God’s Will and when known obey at any cost.

Parenthood & Discipleship

By our example and teaching, we desire to cultivate a love for God's Word and the understanding that it stands far above all else. For us in America, this is often fleshed out as "Scriptural Truth over Psychology." For the Third World citizen, this could very well be fleshed out as "Scriptural Truth over Indigenous Spirit Beliefs." What is important is the heart assuring belief and trust in the sufficiency of Scripture.

Deputation And The Local Church

We hadn’t meant to fall in love with this church plant; we’d meant to come to Denver, get some church planting experience and leave for the mission field a year later. God’s way was different, and the first thing that our new pastors did was slow us down. Actually, they told us we weren’t ready three different times. Those delays were critical for the development that we needed, but they were hard. First, the pastors invited me to become a pastoral intern so that I could be developed in leading a church and then be sent out as a pastor if God wanted me to plant churches.

Top Five Lessons from a One-Year Deputation

This month, our family leaves for an Asian country that doesn’t openly welcome gospel witnesses. Deputation took one year. Our full-time deputation process kicked off when I, Mike,* quit his job in January 2012. We’d had 5-6 meetings with churches and shared with some families/individuals before this; but our commissioning service this January is scheduled for exactly a year since I quit my job. Because of the rarity of this timeframe, we’ve been asked to share our experience. Because of our destination, as well as the difficulty of leaving the glory to God, our real names are withheld, but we’d like to share how God worked.

Realizing Biblical Outcomes When Planting Churches Cross-Culturally

The Church Planter's goal in leadership development is to see God-exalting independent Baptist churches with trained national leadership. This outcome is not realized by chance. The church planter must demonstrate openness, communicate, and have the humility to give and receive correction and criticism. (Phil. 2:1-18)

Practical Suggestion for Ministry Connections

Here are four suggestions for developing ministry connections. This is what missionaries do all the time among unreached peoples. In post-Christian America disciples of Jesus Christ must become intentional in developing these connections if we are to "make disciples." So here goes:

Passing The Baton: Handing A Church Plant To Timothy

There is a danger that we move too quickly and put someone into leadership who is not biblically qualified because of immaturity or because they do not meet the biblical qualifications. The other extreme is equally as dangerous - to have qualified men, but never hand off.

A Needed Discussion: Answering Objections to Long-Term Missions

We recently read a post by Ben Stevens over at the Gospel Coalition Blog. This article articulates answers to the objections that are often raised about long-term missions. Of particular interest are his comments on objection #5 "It Is Much More Effective To Just Fund Nationals." Stevens writes, "Anyone who cares about God’s mission to the nations should be interested to address the ideas being used to deconstruct 20 centuries of missionary precedent. So let me briefly introduce the most popular objections and offer an alternative way of looking at each of them."