Category: Strategy & Church
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Denying Jesus With Pen & Phone
DENYING JESUS WITH A PEN Last week my friends were sitting inside a village office in a third world communist country. Local leaders and police with stoic faces sat around the room, one held an AK-47. On a table in front of my friends was a piece of paper and a pen. All they had…
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Modern Day Slavery, From Fear to Freedom
Slavery comes in many forms. It exists in every culture…even among tribes in Southeast Asia. I had never seen a tribe so remote. After 2 hours of motorbiking and 3 hours of boating we finally arrived in a small village along the river. The houses sat on stilts, the roofs were made of thatch and…
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Why Easter is Meaningless (For the Unreached)
The dust and heat of Southeast Asia in March and April is unbearable. It’s Easter Weekend and I’m on my third pair of sweat soaked underwear for the day. But if that’s what it takes to hide Easter eggs in the front yard for my kids to find then I’ll get sweaty. I love bringing…
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The Way of the Ninja: 6 Ways to Define Our Missional Role
Every Asian kid growing up has one time played ninja. You take a black t-shirt, wrap it around your head, make some paper throwing stars and hide in the closet to get the drop on your unsuspecting brother or sister. Movies and pop-culture show the ninja to be a bad-ass warrior. But real life ninjas…
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Bonfires VS Forest Fires: Sparking Church Movements
I once started a forest fire. As a teenager I always had a lighter in my pocket to smoke a cigarette or a joint. One day, when I was a bored novice monk in Fresno, CA, I wanted to see if sparks could light some dry grass behind the Buddhist temple. Yea, I know, really…
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Catfish & Rice: Finishing the Task by Reproducing Disciples
In the west we equate time with money. In the Kingdom of God we equate time with souls. Every second someone somewhere in the world dies without ever hearing about the hope offered in Jesus. Every second God is being robbed the glory and fame that is due his name. As the population of the…
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The Kingdom of Who?…Model, Assist, Watch & Leave
I walked into an immaculate church building recently and was blown away. It was brand spankin new. You could still smell the sky blue colored paint. It was equipped with everything you would need to do traditional church stuff; sound system, keyboard, projector, laptop, new kitchen, open cafeteria, all-you-can-drink powdered coffee and guestrooms with air…
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4 Tips for Finding the Person Of Peace
As I was riding my motorbike through the rain in some rural Asian village I came to a huge brown puddle across the road. Over the years I have crossed hundreds of puddles, streams and rivers. I thought I had this down so I decided to go straight through. It was murky and deeper than…
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Starting with the End in Mind: 4 Ways to Clarify Your Vision
In 2017 we’ll be celebrating 10 years of serving overseas as cross cultural Kingdom workers…that’s insane! When people hear that they often ask how much longer do we plan to stay overseas. The short answer is, “When the work is done.” There is this misconception that missionaries leave for the jungles and return decades later…
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Die to Swag and Live for Suffering
We want it all and we want it now. As a culture, we in the West are enslaved by a near-worship of comfort and convenience. I seriously just saw this app that digitally enhances your photos to make your face and body look slimmer. You can post your weight loss photos on Facebook and get…
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3 Reasons Why Social Justice Will Not Change the World
For those of us who followed the news in 2014 it was a depressing year. Images of violence, racism, government coups, injustice and world-wide evil have wracked our brains and broken our hearts. As we look at our lost nations, communities and target people groups we have to ask ourselves an important question. What is…
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A Church for the Rejects
We are always talking about reaching the unchurched, unreached and unengaged. That’s a good thing. The problem is we have no plan to reach the rejects of society because we aren’t willing to become rejects ourselves. We are always separating “us” and “them”. We put them in a different category as if we have something…
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A New Way to Do an Old Thing in a New Year
Sharing our faith with lost family, friends and strangers can be a daunting task. We all know that we should be good witnesses of the most important message in the universe – that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again – but none of us have the evangelistic gifts of Billy Graham.…
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The Lack of Cultural Diversity in the Missional Movement: Where All My Colored People At?
I was a ghetto Asian-American juvenile delinquent, fresh in the faith, when I first walked into a southern California mega-church with a group of other knuckleheads wearing saggy Dickies and oversized t-shirts. This church was located in the heart of one of the most ethnically diverse cities in America and we were excited about connecting…
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The Lack of Mission in the Missional Movement: Let’s Just Tweet About It
These days everyone has the vernacular down. The word “missional” has been trending for the last 15 years among post-modern, culturally sensitive followers of Jesus. We’re changing the way we communicate with the un-churched by trying not to sound so religious. That’s great, but changing what we say versus changing what we do are two…
The Asian Rough Rider 