Tag: Asia
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When Instant Success Takes a Few Decades
I reflect on how movements can take years to develop, sharing some of my journey in Asia with my friend Steve Addison. We talked about perseverance, faith, and how the Great Commission isn’t always fast—but it’s always worth it. The heart of the message? It’s still all about Jesus and obedience, with a heavy dose…
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14 Crucial Characteristics of Church Movement Leaders: Working Among Unreached Peoples
With the work I do, I often ask (and get asked) about Unreached People Groups (UPG’s) and how to see indigenous church movements started among them. This conversation always goes back to leadership and why movements (an act of God by the way) can’t happen without them. I have the privilege to labor among UPG’s…
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3 Reasons Why Suffering is Essential in God’s Kingdom
From the safety of our homes in the US, being persecuted for our faith sounds like something that only happens in outlandish countries or ancient biblical stories. To be interrogated, threatened, beaten and jailed for our faith in Jesus is just something that doesn’t typically happen in America. When suffering does occur in other places…
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What Next? The 4 Stages of Launching Church Movements
As church planters, “What next?” is probably one of the questions we ask the most. What do we do after reaching the lost? How do we make disciples and train them to train others? How do we form groups and catalyze a movement of reproducing churches? There are so many methods and answers out there…
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Easter Doesn’t Exist…For The Unreached
Last week I found myself with a broken motorbike surrounded by jungle and stranded in a mountain pass with no cell phone reception. There was no other choice but to split the group up and push the heavy ass bike back the way we came – up and down the mountain in the heat of…
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The Motivation for Mission
There are many honorable and noble reasons to engage the lost in a cross-cultural setting but there is only one that will truly sustain you for the long haul. Missions is not about alleviating poverty, eradicating world hunger, stopping human trafficking, and listen carefully…it’s not even about saving souls. Missions is about spreading the fame…
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Thankful for Diarrhea
I awoke to a sharp pain in my stomach. It was the middle of the night in a rural and remote Asian village. The house was cold. Of course it was, it stood on stilts and there were no doors or windows. Speaking of which there were no bathrooms or latrines either. Not a single…
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Is Faith in the West Dead?
One day I’m sitting on a sky train in a major bustling city sipping Starbucks frappuccino while the next I’m sitting in a thatched hut in a jungle eating a rare and newly discovered species of squirrel. In both places I get to live life with people who are lost and people who are found.…
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The Girl with Evil Spirits
Not long ago I was sitting in a thatched hut praying over a sixteen year old girl who was afflicted by demons. For more than 6 months she was bed-ridden and couldn’t walk. She is the only believer in her entire Animistic tribe. Her family has allowed her to “test” Jesus because nothing else worked…
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Dirty Feet
Sometimes the greatest feeling in the world is having mud in between your toes. Why? It’s because you know you’re taking it like a man and getting dirty is not going to stop you. You understand the risks of riding a motorbike through a jungle in a third world country. You know the rainy season…
The Asian Rough Rider 