Rethinking Church Planting: A Conversation with Jimmy Scroggins from Kingdom People

Posted on December 13, 2012 by shel

Rethinking Church Planting: A Conversation with Jimmy Scroggins

from Kingdom People by Trevin Wax

Jimmy Scroggins is a pastor friend of mine. He currently serves at First Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Jimmy is passionate about church planting in multiple forms and is involved in a mission network calledSendSFL. I’m excited to see new methods of church planting that can supplement and support traditional planting strategies. Today, Jimmy joins me on the blog for a discussion about the future of church planting.

Trevin Wax: One of the things we’ve talked about before is how the church planting structure in North America puts the planter under enormous pressure to attract givers to the new plant, not necessarily new converts. Elaborate a little on how you think our structure and strategy can unintentionally hinder passionate evangelism.

Jimmy Scroggins: First, I want to be clear that I have huge admiration for church planters. Their boldness and confidence in God to go out and start a church from scratch is amazing to me. I am also a strong supporter of church planting churches and organizations, and I am truly grateful for the current wave of resources that is being directed towards new church starts in North America.

Trevin Wax: That said, you have some misgivings about some church planting strategies.

Jimmy Scroggins: Yes. I worry that our standard strategy for funding planters is unlikely to start the number of sustainable, evangelistic, healthy congregations needed to advance the kingdom relative to the growing population and increasing lostness of our culture. The favored approach seems to go like this:

Identify a talented, driven, and probably well-networked planter.
Help him raise several hundred thousand dollars to fund him and his church for 3-5 years.
Count on him to lead his new church to grow fast enough so that by the time his funding runs out his church is self-supporting.

Trevin Wax: What’s is deficient about this strategy?

Jimmy Scroggins: The math simply does not work. Take Southern Baptists, for example. We are working to plant 15,000 churches in North America by 2022. If we are going to raise 100k each (a pretty conservative number for most contemporary church planters) to fund those churches, we are going to invest 1.5 billion dollars in the successful church plants (if you make it 300K per church – that makes it $4.5 billion). Assuming a 70% success rate (which would be phenomenal to the point of unrealistic), we would have tried to start around 21K churches, with a total investment of over $2 billion. I am afraid the math simply doesn’t work if we are hoping to plant that many churches in that amount of time.

Trevin Wax: Besides the math, what concerns do you have?

Jimmy Scroggins: I’m afraid this strategy forces the church planter to focus on attracting givers more than on evangelizing lost people. It really doesn’t matter how many lost people he reaches or baptizes; his sustainability and “success” will be evaluated and celebrated only if his fledgling congregation gives enough money.

The planter’s ability to remain “in business” is directly tied to his ability to shift the costs from his sponsor churches to his own congregation before his startup money is exhausted. It is unlikely that new believers will be able to carry that load fast enough. He has to go hard after transfers from other churches in order to make it work. So again, the focus of the church planter almost has to be on attracting givers as opposed to reaching lost people.

Trevin Wax: So where do we go from here? Your church, while certainly intentional about funding traditional church plants, is also involved in other kinds of gatherings. Tell us about that.

Jimmy Scroggins: As you said, we are indeed participating in traditional church plants, and by traditional I mean the funded approach with full-time planters and some type of “launch-large” strategy. But we are convinced that these types of plants take too long, cost too much and fail too often - at least if we are going to get to 15,000 by 2022. We have begun to develop and invest in two different approaches that we believe will be more effective, especially in metropolitan contexts where Southern Baptists have been weak.

First, we are going all in for bivocational church planting. We are working to identify, recruit, train, and place men in new church plants who will never require a full-time salary from their church. There are scores of white collar, middle and upper income, educated, successful professionals in our churches who have untapped capacity in terms of their time and energy. These guys can be motivated and equipped to plant churches. Of course, God has to call them, but we can help them hear God speak.

Previous generations of church and denominational leaders have basically said:

“If you are called to the ministry, you quit your job, you move your family several states away for seminary-based training, you learn to live in near poverty, and you help your wife and kids adjust to their new life and their new standard of living in their new town. And about the time you get halfway settled into the seminary community – you graduate and move again to a small church in a small place and begin your journey in ministry.”

No wonder very few people will voluntarily heed the call!

We believe there is a better way. We want to train church planters from our own church to plant new churches in our own community. They don’t have to move their families. They don’t have to find new jobs. They don’t have to strike out on their own. We can pour into them, help them develop their spiritual gifts, help them discover their unique calling, help them find a neighborhood that needs a gospel church, and ultimately help them form a church planting team.

Trevin Wax: What experience have you had in developing the bivocational church planting strategy?

Jimmy Scroggins: At First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, we have established a church planting residency program to equip bivocational church planters from our church family. The response has been overwhelming. We have ten men in our first cohort this year, and the waiting list for the 2013 group is already established.

We are pretty excited about bivocational church planting because it is a way to help make the math work. Although these churches will look very much like traditional, funded church plants, we believe they will have a greater chance of success because the pastors will not have to depend on the fledgling church as their sole source of financial support.

Trevin Wax: What’s the other approach you take?

Jimmy Scroggins: We are committed to reaching people that most church plants cannot afford to reach. There are thousands of people in our community who are homeless or very poor. Many are immigrants and many are in our community illegally. Traditional church planters can’t spend time reaching these folks. They can’t give enough to support the new work. But we have recently discovered a way to effectively go after these people.

One of our sister churches in West Palm is teaching us how to plant “rabbit churches” (so named because they multiply really fast). This church uses lay people to start new congregations in homeless camps, trailer parks, apartment complexes, and retirement centers. We are learning from this approach, and we are seeking to plant churches for “the least of these.”

A “rabbit church” looks like a middle-aged deacon pulling up to the homeless camp with metal folding chairs stacked in his pickup. He arranges those chairs around a tree and calls the men and women out for donuts, singing, and Bible study. These people can’t or won’t give much money at all, but since this type of church doesn’t cost anything, they make budget every single week.

Trevin Wax: How will these methods affect the future of church planting?

Jimmy Scroggins: We are convinced that these two approaches – using bivocational planters to start traditional-looking church plants, and using lay-preachers to start “rabbit churches” – could be the future of church planting. And since these two strategies are very similar to effective approaches found in the Bible and throughout church history, we are confident they are going to work.

One thing’s for sure: traditional, funded, full-time church planters are not going to plant enough churches to truly penetrate the lostness of North America.

Seven Reasons Why Evangelism Should Be a Priority of Your Church

Posted on October 11, 2012 by shel

Shel – I went to the Oikos training event in Sioux Falls the other saturday with Tom Mercer. He has a workable approach to calling people to LIVE missionally with those around them. I was angered by it and the apathy I see in SO many believers lives. Here is some more on the topic…

Seven Reasons Why Evangelism Should Be a Priority of Your Church

from thomrainer.com

Evangelism is dying in many churches today.

No, that’s not an overstatement. I am not speaking hyperbolically.

Evangelism is dying.

Look at the data. Measure almost any group of churches today versus thirty years ago. You’ll likely find that only one person is being reached with the gospel for every forty to sixty church members. You will find that conversions have declined precipitously. And where you find numerical growth, you are more likely to find that the growth is transfer of Christians from one church to another. That’s not evangelism. That’s sheep shuffling.

Pastors and other leaders must fall on their faces before God and ask Him to reignite their congregations with an evangelistic passion. When evangelism dies as a priority in the church, the church has already begun to die.

So why should evangelism be one of the highest priorities in your church? Though the reasons are many, allow me to share seven of them.

Because Christ commanded it. We typically refer to the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 as our evangelistic and disciples-making command. But there are many other places in the New Testament where the priority of evangelism is clearly evident. Christ commanded it. We must do it.
Because Christ is the only way of salvation. There is no way around it. Salvation is exclusive. There is only one way. Jesus could not have made it clearer in John 14:6: “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” Jesus had an urgent message. He had an exclusive message. We must be conveyors of that narrowly-defined hope.
Because Christ died for the world. There is a reason John 3:16 is the most familiar and most quoted verse in the history of humanity. Jesus died for the world. He is the only way, but He has provided a way for everyone. That is a message that is urgent and worth telling. Indeed it’s the greatest message ever.
Because churches that are not intentional about evangelism typically are weak in evangelism.Many pastors and church leaders will affirm this article. They will give mental assent to the priority of evangelism. But they do not practice the priority of evangelism in their churches. What are you doing today to make certain evangelism is a priority in your church?
Because churches tend to obsess inwardly when they fail to move outwardly. Where has a lot of your church’s energy been expended lately? Rancorous business meetings? Expressions of petty church preferences? Worship wars? Power struggles? Those are inward obsessions. Lead your church to an evangelistic priority and watch the focus shift for the better.
Because churches become content and complacent with transfer growth. Some churches are growing. Others are adding members without significant numerical growth. But many in both categories are growing at the expense of other churches. Some may be reaching unchurched Christians. That’s good, but that’s not evangelism. We can fool ourselves into thinking we are evangelistic when we are simply recirculating the saints.
Because evangelistic Christians actually grow stronger as better discipled Christians. Those who are evangelistic are obedient to Christ. Being obedient to Christ means that we are following His teachings and becoming a better fruit-bearing disciple.

Most churches are busy with activities, programs, and ministries. Few churches are truly sending out their members to evangelize those in their communities. The Great Commission has fast become the Great Omission.

“The word “go” forbids us to settle into the plush present”

Posted on August 19, 2012 by shel

Calvin Miller Has Died: In Memoriam and His “Letter to the Church” ShareThis Sunday August 19, 2012 ~ Ed Stetzer

I was deeply saddened to hear the news about the passing of Calvin Miller moments ago. It was always a joy to learn from him.

A native of Enid, Oklahoma, Dr. Miller was a faithful servant of the church. Though he only pastored two churches in his lifetime, his 25-years of service at Westside Church in Omaha, Nebraska, shaped his ministry and that of many others. Under his leadership, Westside grew from 10 members to over 2,500 when he left to join the faculty of Southwestern Seminary in 1991. Since 1999, Dr. Miller had served at Beeson Divinity School (one of my alma maters).

A prolific writer, he authored more than forty books and countless poems and free-lance articles. Dr. Miller was deeply committed to the evangelism, apologetics, and cultural engagement for the cause of Christ. He even contributed a “Letter to the Church” for the Mission of God Study Bible (that essay is below). When he asked me to endorse his book, Letters to a Young Pastor, I felt like a kid was asked to endorse a celebrity. (You should get the book.)

He was never one to seek the spotlight like so many others. However, those who knew Dr. Miller knew of his unabashed fervor for the word of God and his desire to make Christ known among the nations.

Dr. Miller knew the importance of story as well. A wonderful wordsmith, he would use the element of story in such a way that cold facts and dry doctrine came to life in ways rarely seen. His poetry was an outpouring of his devotion to both his Savior and his sweetheart, Barbara Joyce.

Like many, I will miss Dr. Miller. He has greatly influenced my, my ministry, and my writings.

As he wrote in his memoir Life Is Mostly Edges:

The edge is a good address. It is a good place to remember our temporariness. It teaches us to spend our time wisely. So our last days can become our best days.

Life is good. So is God.

And life with God is full of glorious daybreaks. After all, it was God who gave me the courage to walk the edges of a life that was never mine!

May we all not take for granted each and every daybreak and remember we are living a life that is ultimately not ours.

Thank you, Dr. Miller.

A Letter to the Church by Calvin Miller, from The Mission of God Study Bible

To every Christian who reads this book: you are a missionary. Missions is the joyous work of informing the world that it is loved. Missions is unrelenting in its desire, it pushes in flaming light against the dark walls of human ignorance. It is honest about all things eternal: we can be free only when we know the truth (Jn 8:32).

Missions is clear, cold water–a cup of grace, a draft of life in the desert. It is as free as air, yet as precious as a pearl buried deep in the brokenness of the human spirit (Mt 13:46). Missions is a message, as simple as two words Jesus Saves–one noun, one verb–and yet this simplicity is God’s broad banner posted just above the gates of eternity (Lk 19:10).

Missions is ravenous in its hunger to please God. It knows no other purpose for its existence. It lives for the single pleasure of hearing God say, “Well done, good and faithful slave (Mt 25:21). You have told the truth in a false world, you have turned the iron key of liberty in the steel door of hell, and the captives are freed (Lk 4:18)! For this liberation you have been called “missionary.”

Missions is a divine madness that hears the voice of God’s only begotten, crying from a mountaintop, into all the world (Mt 28:18-20). It takes this cry to bed and pillow every night. It wakes at every dawn, as Christ whispers in the heart, “I was dead, but look–I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rv 1:18). You must arise for I have come to seek and to save that which was lost. There is no time to waste, the world is loved and doesn’t know it. Hold out your hand and I fill it with gold, and you must go out to give the gold away, making rich all those who are poor in spirit (Mt 5:3). Tell all those who starve about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rv 19:9).

To every Christian who reads this book: you are a missionary.

No matter your credentials. All who name the name of Christ have been ordained by the urgency of God’s agenda in a fallen world. Missionaries are not just those special few who have accepted some certificate of some profession. They are not servants of a special calling. Missionaries are all those who have said “yes, Lord!” To say “I believe” is to understand that you have accepted the commission to go into all the world, starting right inside your home, your village, your nation, your world. You have been empowered. Christ has breathed upon you (Jn 20:22). When Christ moves in, you move out. Out where? Out there! Outside your narrow life. Anywhere is the place to start. So start. Seek! Knock! Any door will do (Mt 7:7). You need no grand beginning point.

There, it is done! You have spoken to someone the entreaty, “Come with us to Christ!” Congratulations! You are a missionary and missionaries are the merchants of hope. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring Good Tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God Reigns (Isaiah 52:7).

But be not proud! In redeeming the world all arrogance is precluded. There are no good, arrogant missionaries (2Co 12:5). Christ’s ambassadors (2Co 5:20) are men and women made humble by the immense size of the message given to them by Earth’s Lover. They feed on the bread they give away. They remember who they were when they met Christ, and just that little act of memory causes them to weep that that they once stumbled into grace, before they were ever called to dispense it. Now they are driven by the joy of God’s call, they are the cleansed unclean, the forgiven forgivers, the wounded healers. Nothing is more important than their preachment. They live for it, they die for it (1Co 9:16). They will not change their minds and they cannot change the subject. They are intentional about one truth, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did” (Jn 4:29). I can baptize you only with water, but He will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit (Lk 3:16). Thus holding forth the world in their left hand they reach for heaven with their right hand, and the gulf between time and eternity is pulled shut (Lk 16:22). The world at hand is made one with the world that is on the way.

All we who know Him are the heralds of God, missionaries blind to our own greatness because we have served a magnificent obsession, a glorious compulsion, “Jesus lives, Jesus saves.” There is no other significant, eternal truth (Ac 4:12).

The day we became missionaries we were no longer good at the sedentary life. The word “go” forbids us to settle into the plush present, for we know that the future is where we were meant to live, for only the future holds the possibility of us making our next disciple (1Co 9:19). Of course we love our last convert, but that believer has only fueled our fever to meet the next one.

Here in this volume you hold the grand marriage of the Word of God and the Commission of God. This is the book that holds the definition of forty holy men, the Bible writers, who have defined the heart of God. Missions plus the Word equals everything. You cannot serve just one of these, for to serve the Book is to serve the mission (Php 2:16). To fail to serve either of them is to choose to serve neither. Read herein what God has for you, then do all that you have read. Only then will you enter into life a whole person waiting on God, and knowing who you are. And knowing who you are you will find pleasure in your identity (Php 3:8,10).

Your life belongs to the world. Your zip code is the globe. You are a missionary.

You might also visit his website and see his most recent book… it will be worth the click.

Kidz on Mission

Posted on August 6, 2012 by shel

Kidz on Mission

from Alliance News by Joan Phillips

Written by Kris Smoll, Children’s Ministry Director

Wide-eyed children climb the stairs to the G.C. Kidz Club tree house. They are about to discover the world of missions through God’s eyes. The children at Appleton (Wisconsin) Alliance Church’s Discovery Land are ascending to the Passport Aviation Cafe, located in a life-size G.C. Kidz Club tree house.

The clubhouse in a tree is modeled after the Alliance G.C. Kidz Web site and is designed to educate children about the need for missions and how to participate in the Great Commission.

In the cafe, they will talk with international workers and children in C&MA churches across the globe via Skype.

We are discipling kids in that 4/14 Window (children between the ages of 4 and 14) to transform the world. In this ministry, the kids learn God’s Word and how to apply Scripture in their daily lives.

In Flight

As the children enter the clubhouse, they are greeted by international workers on a large screen via Skype or video conferencing. The workers introduce children who are learning about Jesus through their outreach and share how God is moving in the country where they live and work.

Recently, our kids were excited to reunite with a group of children in our sister Alliance church in Lima, Peru; through Skype they read Scripture and sang together. The kids are working on a joint project to create and send Christmas gifts in shoe boxes to poor and needy children who live near the Peruvian church. Some of Appleton’s “G.C. kidz” are excited to travel with their parents to Peru to deliver the boxes personally.

“It’s neat to see how the other kids learn, how big the classrooms are, and how different it is from our Discovery Land,” says Mollie, a fifth-grader.

In the Passport Aviation Cafe, kids are also treated to a “taste” of missions through a sampling of culinary delights from featured countries. Additionally, the themed cafe is a platform for leaders to teach about aviation organizations, like Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Ignite the Passion

Children can be a powerful influence for God, and the G.C. Kidz Clubhouse is a unique outreach where they are equipped and empowered to boldly proclaim Christ.

Currently, 800 children–from six months to sixth grade–attend Discovery Land every Sunday morning. About 650 participate in Awana on Tuesday nights.

“I’m really excited about having a bigger ‘church’ so other kids can come and learn [about Jesus] with me,” says Mollie. “It will be neat to be able to Skype [in the Aviation Cafe] with other kids who are learning and accepting Christ into their lives.”

What You Can Do

Pray

Pray that Jesus will inspire creative thinking for Alliance teachers and workers all around the world who minister to children age 4 to 14. Pray that children will be drawn to Jesus through Alliance outreaches designed specifically for them.
Join with the thousands of people who lift up the weekly Alliance prayer requests.

Give

Make a donation to the Great Commission Fund and partner with Alliance workers, such as those in Latin America, in bringing the good news to people trapped in spiritual darkness.
Give now

Learn More

Check out the G.C. Kidz Club! With online games, stories, Bible studies, and more, it is a place where you and the kids in your life can learn more about Alliance missions. Also, kids will be challenged to live out Jesus’ Great Commission in their own lives.
Read more stories of God at work through Alliance ministries.

A Movement Among Us

Posted on August 6, 2012 by shel

A Movement Among Us

from Alliance News by Marvin Harrell

By Melissa MacDonald

“And a little child shall lead them . . .”

In 1990 Christian strategist Luis Bush coined the term “10/40 Window” to refer to the geographical region of the eastern hemisphere, located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, where the largest group of unreached people live. For more than 20 years, missions agencies, denominations, churches and individual Christians have pulled together to reach the 10/40 Window.

Encouraging indicators show that the continuing effort is bearing fruit. In 2008 the annual growth rate of Christ followers in the 10/40 Window was almost twice that of those outside it. In 1990, 2.5 percent of the population in the 10/40 Window were Christ followers; in 2005 that number was 4.7. God is at work!

The Window is Opening

In 2009 Bush urged a new missional focus: the 4/14 Window. Instead of a geographical region, the 4/14 Window refers to a demographic age group. There are 2.2 billion kids in the world, and those aged 4 to 14 are the largest unreached people group today. In the United States, most people who make a decision for Christ do so between the ages of 4 and 14.

We must realize that reaching this generation will require an effort as concentrated and focused as that given to the 10/40 Window. Before the age of 13, kids are deciding what they believe; after age 13, they start defending what they believe. Imagine the impact if we raise up a generation of Christ-following kids who have a biblical worldview, who understand that lost people matter to God, who grasp the power of prayer and who are willing to take risks because the God who loves them has called them to. It just might change what our world looks like. It just might change us.

The wonderful thing about kids is that they know no social boundaries, and their enthusiasm for life is contagious. I could tell story after story of lives—and whole families—who have been changed because of God at work through a child. What would happen if kids aged 4–14 began reaching their families, their friends, their teachers—and beyond? We have before us a challenge and within that challenge, a blessing. The kids of today are poised to change the teenagers, college students and adults of tomorrow.

Reaching Kids is Becoming a Greater Priority

Alliance churches across North America are revamping their children’s ministries with the 4/14 Window in mind. Outreach specifically toward children is becoming a top priority in many C&MA churches.

In Belgium, Wisconsin, leaders at Alliance Community Bible Church have just hired their second staff member, a children’s director. Members of this little church have a heart for the lost kids in their community, and through the help of the district and a private donor, they are making aggressive steps to reach them.

At Grace Church in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, the theme for children’s church is GLOCAL—Global Reach, Local Touch. The workers are introducing kids to other cultures with the goal of lowering barriers and allowing their kids to be open to God’s call to minister in any situation in the world.

At Faith Community Church in Red Oak, Iowa, every fifth Sunday of the month has a missions focus, where kids learn about other cultures, hear what God is doing among those people and places and spend time praying for lost people both near and far.

Whether they’re volunteer or staff, these children’s leaders have taken up the call to raise up world changers. They’ve seen the open window, and they’ve recognized their role in the effort. As we reach the 4/14 Window, I believe we are going to see God at work in the least expected ways, through our very littlest for His glory.

What You Can Do

Find out more about the 4/14 Window at http://4to14window.com/.
To stay up to date on children’s ministry in The Alliance, “like” us on our C&MA Children’s Disciplemaking Facebook page.
Read more stories in alife magazine online
Learn more about Melissa MacDonald, a consecrated worker with The Alliance, member of the national C&MA Children’s Disciplemaking team and the C&MA’s National Children’s Ministry consultant. You canfollow her on Twitter at kidsconsultant or visit www.melissajmacdonald.com

Embracing “Small Things” Key to Large Ministry Returns

Posted on March 29, 2012 by shel

Embracing “Small Things” Key to Large Ministry Returns

March 29, 2012

The following is an adapted excerpt from an update by an Alliance couple pioneering work in North and Central Asia. In this region, less than 1 percent of the population has an opportunity to hear about Jesus’ message of eternal hope.

“Who despises the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10 NIVUK)

We were living “the dream.” Our comfortable life in the Midwest offered us wonderful predictability and a sense of security. So, imagine what it was like when we received an unexpected phone call that disrupted our dream.

The call was a challenge, an invitation to lay the groundwork for a completely new ministry with a completely new team in a spiritually dark and needy region of the world. “Why us?” we asked ourselves. “We have no lengthy history of pioneering a new work. Surely there are others more suited for such an assignment!”

“God Remembers”

But the Father remembered the commitment that we had made to Him many years earlier. We had told Him that He could send us wherever He wished, to do whatever He wished for as long as He wished.

The Prophet Zechariah’s name means “God remembers.” God wanted the prophet and His people to remember that they were not to “despise the day of small things.” He also reminded them of another essential key to fulfilling His call: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty’” (Zechariah 4:6b).

In remembering these things, and what He had done for us, we were able to say “Yes!” to Him.

Baby Steps, Giant Leaps

In our new home, the predictability of our former life in the States has been replaced by the unpredictable. We cannot depend on the postal system nor upon a 24/7 supply of water and electricity.

Each baby step in learning our way around this new country and its culture seems like a giant leap.We need to get around in a new city but do not know what bus or metro line to take. The comfort of getting all that’s needed in one trip to Wal-Mart now requires several stops in several places.

Imagine having to find housing for your team members and appropriate schools for school-age children. Team members who are parents are stressed, wanting their kids to find new friends to play with. But language barriers and differing schedules make contact difficult.

We need to learn the language. (Labels at the market are in one of three or four different languages, none of which is our own.) Yet few Westerners have tried to master this language, so a proven course of instruction is virtually nonexistent.

But we are here for the long haul and realize that long-term ministry effectiveness requires a short-term emphasis in language acquisition.

Huge Tasks

So, how do we face these seemingly Everest-sized tasks? We remember that the same Spirit who brought us here will help us—because the Father so loved this people that He sent His Son to reach us and then sent us to reach them.

And we embrace these days of doing seemingly small things. Yes, a few more hours each day are spent acquiring the daily necessities of life. Yet, meals begin to offer pleasant surprises as we learn to adjust to different spices and metric measurements.

While shopping, we meet vegetable ladies who need the Savior. It is on the crowded buses that we meet people who are genuinely thrilled to know that we are here learning their language!

Christmas greetings announcing the birth of the Savior and small gifts given to flower ladies, beggars, and local artists selling their artwork are small things by the world’s standards. But when these small acts are led and empowered by the Spirit, we trust that they will prepare the way for a wonderful harvest.

What You Can Do

Praise God for this couple’s obedience to lead a new ministry in a spiritually needy nation; pray that God would open doors for the team to see a wonderful harvest. Pray for Alliance workers the world over, who must lean on the Holy Spirit’s guidance to effectively reach those from other cultures with the good news.

Learn about the Great Commission Fund, and make a donation today. Partner with dedicated Alliance workers worldwide who are daily taking small steps to spread the good news about Jesus in word and deed.

Mission Field Sioux Falls: A heart for the nations starts at home!

Posted on March 7, 2012 by shel

A heart for the nations starts at home! The church is always one generation away for extinction in any local place anywhere. Every generation matters to Jesus!

Here’s a little blurb from a book one of the Mercy Church growth groups is reading…Makes the point wonderfully that are called not neglect our Jerusalem, our culture, that which is most alike us…

“When we fail to distinguish between the quasi-Christian civil religion of America and the kingdom of God, two things happen.

First, American kingdom people lost their missionary zeal. Because we buy the myth that we live in a Christian nation, as defined by the civil religion, we don’t live with the same missionary zeal we’d have if we lived, say , in a country where Buddhism or Hinduism was the civil religion. This is why American Christians so often define “missions” as sending people to other countries—as though there was more missionary work to do there then here.

I believe this sentiment is rooted in an illusion. If you peel back the façade of the civil religion, you find that America is about as pagan as any country we could ever send missionaries to. Despite what a majority of Americans say when asked by pollsters, we are arguable no less self-centered, unethical, or prone toward violence than most other cultures. We generally look no more like Jesus, dying on a cross out of love for the people who crucified him, than do people in other cultures, and they are generally no closer to the kingdom of God than people in other cultures. The fact that we have a quasi-Christian civil religion doesn’t help; if anything, it hurts precisely because it create the illusion in the minds of kingdom people that we are closer to the example of Jesus than we actually are (CF Matt. 21:31)….

When a kingdom person realizes that the civil religion of America has no more relationship to the real kingdom of God than any other civil religion—that it’s all just part of the religious trappings most versions of the kingdom of the world adopt—they are motivated to live as much as a missionary IN America as they would if they were stationed in , say, China, Cambodia, or India. The only significant difference is that in at least one respect it’s arguable harder to be a missionary in America…”

The Mainline Churches Are Dead/Dying – BUT Global Evangelicals and Renewalists are Seeing Growth

Posted on December 19, 2011 by shel

Shel Boese / Shelby Boese – it appear as Samuel Langhorne Clemens AKA Mark Twain said the rumors of his death are greatly exaggerated…the death of the church of Jesus is also greatly exaggerated. The church is growing around the world! Check out all of this from the Pew Forum – the interactive maps on their website are great. The mainline denominations are largely dead/dying/declining – BUT the majority of the Global church is Evangelical and open to the Holy Spirit (renewalists: charismatic, “P”entecostal and “p”entecostal) and growing. Jesus said HE would build His church. That the christians are holding their own is amazing. Of course we also need to re-evangelize Europe. Thankfully Africa, Asia and even some US missionaries are refocusing on the old-west.

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Global Christianity

A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population

ANALYSIS December 19, 2011

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.

Quick Links:

Full Report:

Read through the preface, executive summary, report chapters and methodology.

PDF (11.7MB, 130 pages)

Christian Traditions:

Regional Distribution of Christians:

Sortable Data Tables:

Quiz:

View data on Christians in 232 countries in a series of sortable data tables. View all Christians and each tradition by number, as a percentage of the total Christian population and as apercentage of the overall population.

How much do you know about Christianity around the world? Test your knowledge with our short,10-question quiz, which includes questions on the size and distribution of the 2010 global Christian population.

Interactive Feature:

Interactive MapsSelect one of 232 countries, a region or the world to see the size of the Christian population in 2010. Filter data to see the 2010 population of the Christian traditions.

World Maps:

Weighted World Map of the Christian Population in 1910 and 2010View a weighted map of the world that shows each country’s relative size based on its Christian population.

Bubble Maps of the Christian PopulationView world maps that display the size of the Christian population in each country using different-sized bubbles.

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