Tag: Discipleship
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Persecution Story
I was trying hard not to shed tears as I was listening to Chanthi’s story. I had asked him a very simple question, “So tell me about your time in prison for Jesus.” Chanthi was from a remote tribe of spirit worshippers in Southeast Asia. He lived in a simple village high up the mountains…
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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 Christian Responses to the LGBT Community
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states this week leading to a mixture of responses and heated discussions – my wife and I included. As missionaries on the other side of the planet we can’t help but think of the missiological implications, “How will this affect the faith…
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Re-prioritizing Easter: 3 Ways to Share the Gospel and Collect Eggs
About 30 eggs filled with my wife’s “healthiest candies” lay hidden in the small patch of grass in our front yard. After a short reading of the Easter story in Luke 24 my three kids ransacked the green grass filling their baskets with the treasured eggs. I snapped a few really cute photos of the…
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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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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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Nameless & Shoeless for God’s Glory
The true heroes of the faith are the ones without faces. They are the ones who don’t own a single pair of shoes but walk miles to proclaim the Gospel. They are the ones who have never written a book but have seen the dead raised to life and the oppressed set free. They are…
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Dear Tobias…What’s the Worst & Best Thing about Being a Missionary?
November 23, 2014 Hi Tobias, We’ve never met before but I’ve heard a lot about you from some mutual friends. My wife and I spent this past weekend with some missional families stateside and I know God has broken our hearts for the lost, especially for those in the 1040 window. I just wanted to…
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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…
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A Vision for Missional Living
In our part of the world travel is determined by the weather. No matter how much we plan and prepare our trips can be cut short by the onslaught of monsoons, washed out roads, flooded paths and knee deep mud. In the dry season we are faced with clouds of dust that cake our motorcycle…
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How to Change the World for Jesus in 7 Easy Steps
The secret (which is not really a secret) to magnifying the fame of God and bringing lasting global change and is to make disciples…who make disciples, who make disciples. In a previous post, I said I’d give you further details about a process called Training for Trainers (T4T). T4T is a simple & reproducible process…
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Our Gospel Aim: Decisions or Disciples?
Last week some friends and I were gathered around a frail woman who was possessed by evil spirits. The woman and her family had come from a rural village several hours away. They were desperate for help and wanted to turn from spirit worship. They decided to put their faith in Jesus. The moment we…
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Training Trainers: A New Paradigm for Discipleship
No one likes to be told they are doing something wrong, especially leaders, pastors and church planters. We’ve devoted our lives to growing the Church but have we been doing it all wrong? I hate it when I’m wrong. My pride always says that I am right. But my pride can’t argue with results. The…
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When Failing Feels Like Crap
We spend a lot of time cleaning up crap. You know…the mess we make as a result of our own selfish decisions. It doesn’t matter if we are leaders, missionaries, or pastors, we all fall to pride, lust, anger, self-righteousness, worry and self. In those times that we fail to triumph over sin we feel…
The Asian Rough Rider 