One Minute Globe

Ralph Moore is multiplying churches!

2011-11-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ralph Moore is rocking my world lately. I've just finished "Starting a New Church" and am now diving into "How to Multiply Your Church." To anyone in church ministry, these books are a must read. His down-to-earth writing and communicating style, grounded in experience and sensible Christian living, and his authoritative argument - that church multiplication is the only way we can reach the world - is the message we leaders need today.

Moore ought to know. He has planted over 700 "Hope Chapels" (related to the Four-Square Denomination) around the world, and is recognized as one of the leading church planting practitioners alive today. His home State of Hawaii is the only place in America where church growth is out-pacing population growth! In short, Ralph and some of his Hawaii peers have proven the model works!

Beth and I visited Hope Chapel, his home, in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii in August. We've known Ralph since the early 90s when we lived in Hawaii and worked at Grace Bible Church under Sam Webb and Norman Nakanishi, both friends of the Moore family.

For a quick intro, watch this 2-minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP1BP7T8IoI&noredirect=1

Living to the Power of Ten!

2011-10-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying a study of the Ten Commandments, both in scripture and in the writings of other men. "Written in Stone: The Ten Commandments and Today's Moral Crisis" by Philip Graham Ryken is particularly insightful.
These simple, straight-forward commands, given in love by God to a nation He was bringing out of bondage into to a new national freedom (the Exodus Story), were designed to help them survive and thrive as a new nation.
Ten Commands! Three about respect and love for God. Six about respect and love for our fellow man. And one about taking care of ourselves - the weekly Sabbath rest!
Living by these foundational principles, is the basis for a happy, uncomplicated life - personally and in community. Everyone longs for it, but so few are willing to develop the disciplines necessary to experience the rewards.
The Ten Commandments show us the way we are to live, and they also show us how desperately incompetent we are to do it! Especially in light of Jesus' teaching where murder isn't just killing another person, but hating them! And adultery isn't just an act but a thought as well! And stealing is measured by our covetous attitude and love of money.
Jesus didn't do away with the Ten Commandments! He raised the bar! We need Jesus to empower us to live His Way! And, this is the way He wants us to live.
I dream of a place where people live - in their hearts and in their behaviors - by these simple loving tenets. This is what we call "Christian Community" or "the Body of Christ." It is the people of God who love, respect, and trust God and each other in every detail of life. This is what we all strive for as Christian leaders.
It really isn't a difficult way to live. That is the real secret we try to get out to people! The world - including that portion of "the world" that lives inside of us - makes it difficult because our sinfulness floods us with tempting opportunities to live and think another way. And when we do, when we follow that path, we pay for it every time - in our personal lives and in our relationships. We have all suffered from breaking the Ten Commandments.
But Jesus offers an alternative. He said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me... for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
The more I study the Ten Commandments in the Old and New Testament, the more I am convinced that "Living to the Power of Ten" is actually the easiest and most rewarding way to live!
And, the example we set is the way to transform the world!

A Tenacious Life!

2011-10-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

On October 14th, my friend Wayne Crooke died suddenly of a heart attack in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He was only 66 years old. Wayne and his wife Carolyn have given their lives to the nations of South East Asia. He was my first mentor in missions. Beth and I worked with Wayne and his family when we were first married, young twenty-somethings with high ideals and low experience. We joined him to help build SEA Crusades. Together, under his visionary leadership, we pioneered an open-air crusade model in Thailand that planned and prayed to reach thousands of people for Jesus Christ.

For three years we hammered away with negligible results and small crowds. But Wayne was tenacious and wouldn’t give up. Of all things I loved and hated about Wayne Crooke, it was his determination that was his most memorable feature! In the spring of 1981, after years of toil, God finally gave him the break-through for which he had labored and wept in prayer. We set up our simple equipment on a large open soccer field in Thoeng, North Thailand, and advertised with handbills in the surrounding area. I remember Wayne commenting about how small the village was, and perhaps we were foolish to agree to come here for ten days of meetings.

Three hundred people showed up on the first night. Then 600 on the second, and 1200 on the third. The crowd continued to grow like that until on the 9th night over 20,000 filled the field! They came for only one reason: to hear stories about Jesus Christ and see His power at work in their lives. It was an historic night, not only in our experience, but also in the history of Thailand. No one had ever seen such large crowds gather to hear the Gospel in this nation. In following years, our family started working in Sri Lanka and Wayne and new team members continued traveling all over Thailand conducting huge open-air meetings like this. In recent years, Wayne, now in a new season of life, was preparing to enter Burma.

Those experiences set our family on a journey in missions that we continue to walk out today. In Sri Lanka, two years after Thailand, Beth and I followed Wayne’s model, and ultimately planted churches after our outreaches – one at a time until 35 churches were birthed. Today that group has grown to over 90 churches with membership totaling 35,000 people!

We should never under-estimate the impact we make on others. Positive impact is almost always the result of faithfulness over time – steadfastness, perseverance and determination! Our culture too often sells us short with quick fixes, instant gratification, and fast food answers. Too often we expect the same from God. But much of Kingdom work is the fruit of time-tested steadiness.

I hope I am the kind of mentor and example that Wayne and Carolyn have been to me. My goal in leadership is to model that kind of life-long steadiness. I remember making a decision as a young person, while we worked with Wayne in Thailand. I had heard a lot of people talking about “having the fire of God in our souls!” and of “burning out for Jesus.” I decided at that time that rather than burning out, I was going to be an internal-combustion engine that would make the long trip and keep on rolling.

Perhaps that is why, after a lifetime, people like Wayne Crooke were still happily doing the stuff!

And THAT, as they say, is how we roll!

Reflections on Election Day

2008-11-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write this to you before we know the outcome of the U.S. elections. It has been quite a ride, following this campaign. I have noted with interest (not joy or dismay) how strongly Americans – including some Christians, leader and average Joe alike – feel about particular candidates.

I think being a missionary for fifteen years in Asia pretty much ruined me for putting too much stock in the outcome of an election. Measured in terms of bringing real change, I don’t have a lot of expectations either way for this election. Christians in most Asian countries (expect for perhaps Korea) are such a small minority, they never – I mean never – give a thought to the evangelical vote. They live in ungodly, idol-worshipping or anti-Christian cultures, with all the trappings therein, and that is that. They pray and they vote (if they can), but usually the choices of candidates consist of a “lesser of evils” at best. Yet, God works in these nations. His work is not primarily through the political process.

I believe we SHOULD vote, and we SHOULD pray for our leaders, and we SHOULD be a vocal advocate and activist for Godliness in our government as much as we appropriately can, but we also should realize that true transformation of society does not come from the top down. It originates in the human heart, the very bottom of the power pyramid, and it works its way up through a person, to a family, to a community and then to a nation. It is then only maintained as human hearts stay centered in Jesus Christ. To try to fight for it any other way is to miss the point of the Gospel.

Billy Graham was always an advocate of personal transformation first. During his illustrious career that began in 1949 at a crusade in Los Angeles, he served as the ex-officio “Pastor in Chief” (TIME Magazine’s title for him) for and confidante of every American President since Harry Truman. While he was always a spokesman for godliness in government, he also frequently went on record as saying that politics will never change a nation back to God. Only prayer and the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to do that.

Unfortunately, there are some in America who are placing undue expectations on the Presidential candidates. I do hope the right man is elected and that he provides moral and sensible leadership to this nation. However, to expect that one man or one party can do the work our country needs is ludicrous. After the post-election party fireworks have dimmed, and real world problems start closing in on our neighborhoods, we will be disappointed if that is where we have placed our hope.

No leader but Jesus can change society, because no leader but Jesus can change the heart of a human being and help people live different lives and make better choices.

So, I voted and I’m praying. I hope you have done and are doing the same.

Iran News - Not what we hear in the Media

2008-10-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

The world is a complicated place!

I just finished reading an article in the September-October issue of Missions Frontiers Magazine (http://www.missionfrontiers.org/) about what is happening in Iran right now.

Over one million Muslims have come to Christ in Iran in recent years, this despite – or perhaps caused by – the oppressive authority of the Shiite Cleric controlled government. Additionally, millions of Iranian young people, reacting against the same oppression, now view all things American as good! Ice cream, Barbie dolls, and KFC.

Sadly, ten million more are seeking refuge from their pain and frustration in illegal narcotics from their neighbor, Afghanistan.

Here in the U.S. the only news we get about Iran, from our government leaders and the news media, is talk about their nuclear arms program and the possibility of a military strike to stop it. The picture we get is that the entire Iranian nation is hell-bent on annihilating Israel and the United States.

Now I read that a million Persians have found Jesus, that 40% of the nation watches illegal Christian satellite television, and that ten million more young people – one in seven Iranians! – are so disillusioned by current realities they are shooting heroin!

I’m thinking – we Americans really have no clue about what is going on in the world. This should be national news! Why? Because it is important information! A military strike on Iran would mean we could kill many of our friends – new-to-the-faith brothers and sisters in Christ. At best, we would re-establish in the minds of millions of Iranians that “Christian” America truly is their enemy.

Unfortunately, the powerful Islamic elite, who have their hands on the nuclear trigger in Iran, are not Christians and are not friends to the west. So, what to do?

Like I said, the world is a complicated place. All the more reason to seek God and seriously intercede for people all over the world in these challenging times.

My Vote in November

2008-10-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

The current economic crisis is slowly bleeding what is left of our national wealth and morale. Unfortunately, no one wants to make the necessary changes that will bring real solutions; we only want a bailout, a quick fix to jump-start the economy and get the money flowing again.

The political campaign is doing little to bolster public confidence. Some are calling for Sarah Palin to withdraw because of inexperience. Others complain that John McCain is too old and too outdated. Barak Obama is vague and unpatriotic. Joe Biden can’t keep his foot out of his mouth. President Bush is a lame duck.

I disagree with much of the rhetoric in the media these days, but one thing troubles me deeply: After all the bailouts, speeches and promises, I am not sure that anyone in national leadership can really lead this country!

And I will tell you why.

As a nation, “we the people” have become ungovernable! We can’t govern our own private lives, so how do we expect a leader – be it a President, a Representative, or a Corporate CEO – to govern or guide us? We have become a nation of spoiled children expecting sugar daddy politicians and credit-ready bankers to take care of us and make our lives easy.

Well, life isn't easy anymore and we still don't get it.

Every time I read the newspaper I cringe. Wall Street is to blame, big banks are to blame, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae executives are to blame, the President is to blame, Congress is to blame. Some say we have too many regulations; others that we don’t have enough. We are united by only one thing: Everyone wants someone to fix the problem quickly, so we can all go back to the way things were. Then, there will be an investigation, and we will fix the blame. And you can be sure all the fingers will point at someone else.

Is anyone prepared to really make changes - at the grass roots, personal level - where change MUST happen?

Twenty years ago Jack Kemp said that “democracy without morality is impossible.” We can argue until the cows come home about the specific definition of morality – and I am sure, in our great American tradition, we will. The truth, however, is that moral prudence isn’t hard to know. Ninety percent of it is common sense and common decency. Sadly, too many people seem to have lost contact with both of those qualities.

We can also argue about who really is to blame for America's economic problems, and, again, I am sure the arguments and discussions will go on forever. In every case of financial insolvency, however, from high finance on Wall Street to home mortgages on Main Street, an individual made a decision about how to manage his or her responsibilities. No one put a gun to anyone’s head and forced them to invest in high risk portfolios, offer risky loans, or borrow money they could not afford to pay back.

Every mortgage holder can read and do simple math. It is not rocket science to calculate a monthly budget. It does not require a college degree to understand the importance of saving for the future. This is common sense. At least it is common in most prosperous nations.

Unfortunately, in our culture’s amazing ability to live irresponsibly and shift the blame, we have failed to manage our money and now find ourselves in debt over our heads, waiting breathlessly for another bailout.

Our current crisis is the result of decades of self-serving living. We have wanted our piece of the American pie so badly that we did whatever it took, however irresponsible or short-sighted, to get it. The American Dream, that wonderful, tranquil hope of a better life – that was originally born of hard work, responsible living, and delayed gratification – has steadily eroded into a nightmare of selfish, narcissistic, me-first, give-it-to-me-now hedonism.

No one – including the Democrats, the Republicans, the big banks, and the players on Wall Street – is to blame any more than the “man on the street.” We are all culpable! Whoever does not manage his own life, pay his bills, work his job, and stay out of unmanageable debt has contributed to this mess. If we are spending more than we are earning and indulging our baser instincts (for more power, more money, more stuff!) rather than acting like responsible adults, we are to blame too. When we fail to manage our own lives, and then in crisis turn that responsibility over to legislators, attorneys and bailout experts, we have forfeited our future.

It is time to stop shifting the blame, and expecting somebody in Washington or New York to fix our lives! John McCain cannot do it. Neither can Barak Obama. Let’s not kid ourselves. Our political leaders, conservative or liberal, cannot undo the collective mistakes of 300 million people, no matter how much money they pump into the system or what new laws they pass.

However the bailout unfolds and whoever you vote for on November 4, you would do well to cast a vote for common sense at home, and make a personal decision to do better these next four years!

Invest in Timothy!

2008-07-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

For the first time in nearly 31 years Beth and I are living alone in our house. Cori is married and living with her husband and daughter in Mobile. Jeremy is married and living with his wife and two children in Colorado Springs. Trevor is living in Bangkok, and Kelly is married and living with her husband and son in Pensacola. Since Trevor left in June, we have officially become “empty nesters,” a title we have embraced with mixed emotions. Certainly, we now enjoy more time to ourselves, but we also miss the daily interactions, intrusions and intimacies that are a part of family life.

Now we are also enjoying the fruit of our investments – our children and their families. We value every time they come over to hang out, bringing our grandchildren with them. Trevor calls regularly from Thailand just to talk. The love they extend to us fills our souls. Their lives elicit in us almost unspeakable joy.

This joy, in essence, is the fruit of what Paul is talking about in 2 Timothy 2:2: Investing our lives in other people and replicating in them who we are and what we have learned. The rewards – of parenting, of mentoring, of nurturing and relationship building – are guaranteed when we do this work. Our faithfulness to invest in “Timothy” (whether actual or spiritual sons or daughters) is genuine discipleship and is the very soul of Christian work. It also pays the greatest rewards of all human experience.

Paul’s charge to Timothy – “What you have heard from me… commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2) – is perhaps one of the most profound sentences in scripture. In a single, simple statement, Paul defined how the church works – one person modeling knowledge and character to another, with profound consequences.

When we are good parents, our children admire us. As they grow, their admiration deepens and then they begin to inquire of us. As we continue to invest our time and attention into their lives, they embrace what we “teach” them and begin to aspire to be like us – to do what we have done, and even more! Then, as we release them to their adult lives, they marry, have children, and develop personal passion to inspire others.

Changing the world isn’t as difficult as we sometimes think. Parents and Christian leaders have incredible power – for good or for evil – to influence the people in their circle of care. The difficulty is that many of us are not consistently living this simple process. Too many people are not willing to invest in Timothy, or they do so with the wrong motives. Broken homes, broken promises, and disillusioned lives are a sad testimony to this fact.

But we can make a difference! No matter what spiritual gift mix you have, and no matter what failures may be a part of your testimony, you can start influencing people – by the way you follow Jesus and the time you spend with them. People today, young people especially, long for meaningful connection with others. They want a mentor who will guide them into growth and purpose. People aren’t just looking for the next exciting revival meeting or church program. Certainly, everyone needs these encounters with God too. But, people are looking for a person – a person to be Paul – to mentor them, to guide them, to show them – by personal example – the way to live.

You can be that person to someone right now! My charge to you is this: Invest in Timothy! There is a Timothy in your life right now. You know who this person is, or who these people are. Don’t fail them! Don’t let them down. Spend time with them and guide them into God’s future.

Invest time and genuine attentiveness in their lives – they will ADMIRE you.
Invest in them until they come to you for advice – they will INQUIRE of you.
Invest in them as a model of the way to live – they will ASPIRE to be like you.
Invest in them until they discover their own values – they will then INSPIRE others.

Raising our children to adulthood has taken Beth and me 31 years. It was time well spent and I have no regrets. I’m glad we made our marriage and family life work, even when it was tough. The kids alone were worth it.

In the verses following 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul writes about a soldier’s difficulties, an athlete’s commitment to rules, a farmer’s work ethic, and his own struggles and sufferings. In our hedonistic, self-serving contemporary culture, duty and obligation are grossly under-valued commodities. But they are essential for making disciples of Jesus, and Paul lived his life this way as an example to others.

Living life as an example to others is worth the investment – yes, even the personal pain – for the reward we receive in the end. That reward is measured, not by what we receive, but by the enrichment that comes to others. Soldiers die for this stuff. Farmers work for this stuff. Parents suffer for this stuff. Jesus gave His life for this stuff. And ministers and missionaries are called to do the same thing. Our rewards are lived vicariously through the people we have influenced for good.

Here’s to the Timothy’s in your life! Go and help them be men and women of God!

Doug

The Power and Importance of Church Planting

2008-01-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

Are you Planting Churches?

The longer I serve in missions the more I am convinced that the single activity toward which all missionary work should lead is – CHURCH PLANTING! One mission leader said it this way: “Missions is church planting. Everything else is ministry.” In other words, missionaries plant churches. The people in those churches do the ongoing ministry in their communities.

Before we go on, let me clarify a few ideas.

Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” This is the one ministry activity Jesus guarantees will be successful!

Jesus commanded us to, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…” Discipling and teaching happens most effectively in community groups - churches.

Paul planted churches wherever he went, and then through the years wrote letters to those churches with words of instruction and encouragement. From his writing we got much of the New Testament. The New Testament is a record of Jesus’ Great Commission being carried out – and we should follow the example.

The “local church” is a group of believers in Jesus Christ who are in a committed relationship with each other, who gather together regularly to worship, grow and serve each other, and who exist within their local community as a light to the world around them. We all need a group like this for our own needs – the same is true for every person on earth. Everyone needs a “family of God” place to belong and be loved, nurtured, to worship Jesus, and to be challenged to serve others.

The goal of mission, God’s mission, is to get His sent ones to start such assemblies of believers all over the world. Every activity we engage in – whether evangelism, teaching, prophecy, bible schools, radio programs, or humanitarian service – should intentionally and deliberately be engaged in accomplishing this goal.

I don’t think any of us disagree with the goal on principle. The problem we have is with getting our daily activities too truly contribute to this goal. It is easy, in the pressure of ministry demands, to lose sight of the goal and just be busy doing good (but not great) stuff.

So, how to stay on track? Ask yourself:

How do I measure “success” in ministry? Is it by the activity I love or is it by how my work contributes to God’s goal?
How can I improve faithfulness and obedience to God’s command to make disciples?
What could I change to start doing more fruitful work?

We all tend to fall in love with our favorite projects and activities. When that happens, we become vulnerable to reduced effectiveness and, frankly, disobedience to the Great Commission. WE SHOULD NOT BE IN LOVE WITH PROJECTS OR ACTIVITIES! We should be in love with the GOAL – which is helping people become followers of Jesus and planting them into churches where they can grow and take the Gospel to their nation! The projects, activities, methods, programs, and daily schedules we start and maintain should all serve THAT goal and should be regularly evaluated by their effectiveness.

Perhaps one of the most difficult kinds of ministry to apply indigenous church planting principles is in working with the desperately poor. The Bible has much to say about God’s love for the poor and helpless, and much more to say about showing mercy and providing safety and assistance. Sometimes we simply must love through humanitarian aid. However, church history demonstrates that such aid over time quickly erodes into co-dependent, disempowering forms that rob the recipients of their dignity. Therefore, aid program must simultaneously develop ways to empower the poor to take care of themselves and become followers of Jesus within their own communities.

My challenge to you in 2008 is this: Start planting churches!

If you are already planting a church, ask God how you can turn this one over to national leadership and plant another one. Ask God how you could plant 10 more!

If you are not a church planter or pastor, ask God how your spiritual gifts and ministry strengths can join hands with missionary or national church planters so you are contributing directly to this goal. Don’t just “do good in Jesus’ name.” Don’t just win souls to Jesus. Help establish them into permanent churches where believers – new ones and mature ones – can grow and serve!

Think big! If money were no object, how many churches do you think you could help plant in your ministry lifetime? I guarantee you, money is NOT the problem. God has plenty of money to give. The problem is that we must first get focused on the goal, and then think, pray, and work strategically towards it – before we can tap into God’s provision.

When we were in Sri Lanka, after we had planted the first 6-8 churches, we set as our goal to plant 50 churches in the next ten years. We had very little money, but we had a vision. We left before we had reached the goal – we only planted 33. But today over 70 churches, with more than 25,000 congregants, are meeting every Sunday in the hill country. The work continues to grow indigenously!

Here’s to many new churches, planted by Globe missionaries, in 2008!!!

The Power, Passion, and Potential of a Young Person

2007-11-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

I made my first overseas trip – to Central America – when I was 18. I was 21 when I first went to Asia. At 24 my wife, our daughter and I, moved to Taiwan for our first two-year term of missionary service. At 28, I started AsiaNet Ministries. By the time I was 35 my family and I had traveled in over 20 nations, helped plant 25 churches in Sri Lanka, and were leading a team that included seven missionary families.

Today, at 52, I sometimes reminisce about those years and can’t believe I had so much energy and got so much done! I also remember the passion and almost endless self-sacrificing vision of my youth.

Every generation produces new young people. From these youth new sources of energy, passion and vision are bestowed on the world. And, the older generation that spawned them, who are now slowing down, must come to terms with their zeal, their hope, their innocence, and their potential.

If you are over 40, you probably have begun to forget some of the power of being young. You have lost much of your youthful passion. Your energy levels are lower. Your vision is more “refined” which definitely includes maturity and wisdom, but it might also mean it is more cynical or cautious. It is certainly more realistic. Your passion is more compromised, meaning you now balance sold-out service for self-serving interests and life obligations. You now think about retirement, not just winning the world for Jesus. You look back with regret as often as you look forward with hope.

Youth aren’t encumbered with such conflicts of interest. Their life is ahead of them, and they are ready to live. In the words of Saturday Night Live character Matt Foley, young people want to “grab life by the tail, pull it down, tie it in a knot and put it into your pocket.” They are willing to make big sacrifices for what they believe. They don’t have much experience, and they lack knowledge, but they want to change the world.

Young people also don’t know what many older folks now believe, that – again in the acrid words of Matt Foley – they probably “won’t amount to Jack Squat.”

Cynical, yes. But too often the sentiments of the older toward the younger.

David accomplished his most famous deed when he was a teenager. By himself, despite his elder brothers’ scorn and the army’s mass cowardice, he confronted Goliath and killed him with a stone and a sling. King Saul had offered a huge reward – money and his daughter – to the man who killed the giant. David, however, didn’t fight Goliath for money. He did it for an ideal. He loved God and His people and would not stand idly by while both were mocked by a tyrant. David’s faith, borne on the wings of youthful zeal, killed a giant and inspired a nation.

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love surfing. People joke about Doug Gehman’s passion for surfing. In the 1960s, when I was a teenager, surfing became one of the icons of a generation who were turning their backs on “The Establishment” and the greed and war it had come to symbolize. A whole generation – hippies, flower children, surfers, run-aways and rebels “turned on, tuned in, and dropped out.” Our parents did not know what to do with us. We marched against Vietnam. We stood up against big money. We quit college and got stoned. We rioted and protested on college campuses across the nation. It was a messy time in America. Yet, out of that cultural conundrum God brought forth the Jesus People. I became one of them in 1973, at “Jesus ‘73”, the first big Christian youth rally for our times. 15,000 young people gathered on a Pennsylvania farm for three days of music and Christian ministry. I gave my life to Christ at that rally.

There were no churches for us in those days. Not a single youth-focused church existed in my home area. In the early 70’s one Presbyterian pastor started a Saturday night meeting for young people. It drew hundreds of high school and college kids. When I went to college in Indiana, there were only two churches in the county that centered around marginal youth. I joined one of them, Zion Chapel. I grew up in the Lord in that church. I met my wife there, got married there, and got sent to the mission field from that church.

On the other side of the nation, in Costa Mesa, California, Pastor Chuck Smith started welcoming hippies into his church – the first Calvary Chapel. In Pensacola, Florida Pastor Ken Sumrall began reaching out to young people, loving them into the Kingdom. Liberty Bible College and Globe Missionary Evangelism were born from that love, and from Brother Ken’s belief that youth would change the world for Jesus Christ.

Many of these churches and ministries still thrive today. Many are now huge and are still growing. Others have become stale, middle-aged, and almost irrelevant to this generation. But, their legacy is profound. God moved on young people, and a few leaders said yes to God and loved them, trained them, and turned them loose on the world. Many of Globe’s senior missionaries are the fruit of that time.

Fast forward to the summer of 2005. In July that year, I attended the Christian Surfers National Conference in Honolulu. At that conference a young man named Mike Doyle spoke about a new ministry called Walking On Water. Walking On Water was making Christian surf films. As Outreach Director, Mike had helped bring the message of Jesus Christ, through the sport of surfing, to thousands of young people all over the world. In a few years Walking On Water had touched over 85,000 young people in 15 nations! It was an amazing story of youthful faith, vision and passion for Jesus Christ. I was mesmerized by Mike’s testimony, delivered (you gotta know Mike) in his modest, matter-of-fact conversational style.

After the session I introduced myself to Mike saying, “You and I have got to talk. I would like to partner with Walking On Water to do an outreach with Globe.” That conversation led to the Scotland outreach with Bob and Melissa Hill, and the starting of “Deeper,” a skate outreach church for young people in Dumbarton. Over 120 kids attend every week. Deeper is now one of the biggest youth ministries in Scotland.

This past summer, we did a second outreach with Walking On Water in Bielefeld, Germany. One of the couples on Brad Thurston’s team, Johannes and Esther Baumann, are now planting a new skate church in Bielefeld. My hope and expectation is that within a year or two we will be hearing similar reports.

Another young man, Ian Skelley, is helping Globe make cutting edge television programs that feature our missionaries’ ministries. Ian has already done three – in Cost Rica, Scotland, and Nicaragua – and three more are planned for this fall. Ian is willing to travel anywhere in the world. We just give him a plane ticket and he’ll go and make a missionary film and tell a missionary story. Ian’s work is featured on the “All Over the World” television program.

A steady stream of young people are coming to Globe to talk about missions. They are signing up for intern assignments, outreaches, Boot Camp, and our Institute for Global Ministry. I am continually amazed at their willingness to give their lives, and make huge sacrifices, for what they believe is a noble cause – to reach the world for Jesus Christ. And we are retooling everything we do to connect with and serve them.

I want to challenge you. If you are over the age of 40, take some time to reconnect with the journey you began with Jesus as a young person. And find a way to get involved with young people. Look around! Thousands of young people today need the love, the encouragement, the guidance, and the wisdom you can provide. It doesn’t matter if they are from Indiana or India, from Pensacola or Peru, they are ready to be radical and will follow Jesus to the ends of the earth if we can inspire them with who He really is.

You MUST be willing to make some changes in your life to get their attention and earn their respect. They can spot a phony a mile away. You must become youthful at heart and allow God to give you a genuine love for young people. In my case, it was (and still is) important that I know how to ride a surf board. Surfing buys me respect. I surf because I love it, but I need to be a surfer to keep me connected to youth culture.

Young people today are a distinct people group – with their own language, dress code, worldview, and culture. To reach them we must get on the inside. Just like any cross-cultural work, reaching young people requires a missionary mind. But, there are incredible dividends for reaching this generation. In them and through them is the power complete the greatest mission in history!

The Two Structures of God's Redemptive Mission - by Ralph D. Winter

2007-10-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ralph Winter, a Presbyterian missionary to Central America, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, California has written what many consider the basal work on the subject of church and mission structures.

There is a lot of talk today, especially among independent and mega churches, about the place of "para-church" organizations in the Kingdom of God. Ralph Winter, in my opinion, does an excellent job in attempting to resolve this debate by declaring that the local church and para-church dichotomy is not a dichotomy at all but is simply a two-fold expression of "THE CHURCH."

Pastor Rick Warren and other well-known Christian leaders have recently visited the subject, and I have had personal involvement with the dialogue for nearly 30 years among independent charismatic church leaders. Winter wrote his article in 1973, in the earlier days of some of the renewal movements that were re-inventing the way church and mission were being done. It could be argued that renewal was needed in some denominations and structures. Winter was concerned that the pendulum was swinging too far in the opposite direction.

Winter gives names to the two expressions of the church: Modalities and Sodalities. Modalities are structures primarily focused on nurture and fellowship, the local church. Sodalities are structures primarily focused on task, mission societies and other "para-church" organizations. Para-church is a mis-nomer because it implies a structure that is not church, but exists along side the church.

Winter uses scripture and Jewish history as his exegetical basis. The early local churches (modalities) were built upon the Jewish synagogue model in the Jewish diaspora. Paul's apostolic band, was sent from Antioch yet functioned as a separate structure. It was the forerunner of modern sodalities, and was the church doing a task, from Winter's perspective.

You can read Winter's entire article at the US Center for World Mission Website: http://www.uscwm.org/mobilization_division/resources/web_articles_11-20-01/Two%20Structures%20for%20Mob%20/two_structures.html

Winter insists both modalities and sodalities are legitimate expressions of the church of Jesus Christ and are necessary to complete God's redemptive purpose on the earth. I heartily agree!

There are detractors. Some leaders declare: "If the church was doing its job, we would not need para-church organizations." Others assert the opposite: "If the church were doing its job we would have MORE of these kind of structures, because more people would be released to do what God has called them to do."

It is my belief that both structures are here to stay, both because of God's design and because of the nature of man. Below is a visual aid I created to help us think more accurately about the relationships between the Agency, the Local Church, the Missionary.

Flags and our Heroes

2007-10-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

This photograph is known as “the most reprinted photo in history.” Joseph Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer, took the picture on February 23, 1945 on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The battle for control of this tiny island was one of the most horrific invasions in modern history. After only five days of all out warfare against 22,000 entrenched Japanese soldiers, U.S. Marine “Easy Company,” and the Divisions of which they were a part, suffered nearly five thousand casualties. Rosenthal took this photograph at the summit of Mt. Suribachi, the highest point on the island, while six young Marines raised the U.S. flag. The picture was wired back to New York and became an instant sensation in newspapers across the country. It captured the nation’s attention, awakened America’s sense of pride in our fighting forces, galvanized our resolve to win the war, and provided comfort and meaning to those families who had lost their sons.

In this way, the photo served a great and worthy purpose.

Unfortunately, the photo does not tell the whole truth or the complete story. It was the symbol America needed at the time, but for the men who fought and died on Iwo Jima, especially the six men pictured in the photo, the flag raising and the attention it ruthlessly focused on them, was something else. America needed heroes, so we made heroes of Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley, Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon, and Harlon Block. These six young men became the unwitting and sometimes unwilling symbols of our national pride; they found the task to be a brutal calling.

Symbols, while important, are almost always larger than life. Reality is messier, more complicated, and usually a little disappointing. For these boys, the heroism bestowed on them was an uncomfortable fit. They were boys – not one of them was over the age of 25. Not one of them knew how to deal with the trauma of war nor the triumph of celebrity. In the preceding five days before the flag raising, they had fought for their lives, suffered battle wounds, and watched many of their friends die violent deaths. On that auspicious February morning they were numb with the stuff of real war. Their thoughts were not occupied with triumph, but with death, blood, hunger, grief, and utter fatigue.

What happened to these six boys after that day was not a pretty picture. Mike Strank and Harlan Block died the next day in the continuing battle for the island. Franklin Sousley died four weeks later from Japanese sniper fire, still defending Iwo Jima. Only three of the six flag raisers survived. Soon after the photo became famous, they were shipped to the United States and spent the rest of their military careers traveling the country, making public appearances in front of thousands of adoring fans.

The mass attention they received was not the blessing nor the glory we presume. They struggled constantly between public adulation and private anguish, the result of battle trauma and grief. Ira Hayes died on January 24, 1955, ten years later, an aimless and impoverished alcoholic. He was found frozen on the ground, outside a friend’s home, dead from exposure to the elements. Rene Gagnon died on October 12, 1979, of a heart attack, at his janitor job. He was the only man of the three who had seemed to enjoy the limelight; but in fact he was pushed in front of the microphones and cameras by his attention-seeking wife. The fame brought him only one consistent reward: marital strife. Three days before his death, his 32-year-old son admonished him to “resolve” things with his wife Pauline, to which he replied, “I have no answers. There is no way out. There is no escape.”

John Bradley, in the middle of the photo, was the only one of the six men who lived out his remaining life with some normalcy. He moved back to his home town, married, and built a funeral home business. Through the years he loved his wife, raised his children, and lived in the same small community. After the war he rarely spoke about his celebrity. He refused to talk to reporters. Why? One wonders. He only gave one clue for his distain for the public eye: the pain of losing his friends, and celebrity from the photo were difficult burdens. He did not want to be depicted as a hero. He had only done his job, like every other soldier. After his death, his son James recounts the story of the flag raisers and of his father, in the book, Flags of our Fathers.

Are we disparaging these men by pointing out their weaknesses, their failures, their humanity? Absolutely not. On the contrary, we are honoring them more by dispelling the impossible myths of human heroism. These men were heroes; there is no doubt about that. But they weren’t the only heroes. They were six among 70,000 who fought at Iwo Jima. John Bradley, Ira Hayes and Rene Gagnon knew this to be true. The fact that our political and media leaders, and the general public, needed a symbol, and therefore made examples of these three boys, should not diminish the greater truth: Everyone who does his job, in the final tally, is equal. No one stands taller than the other. The three surviving flag raisers wished such honor could have been afforded to all their friends, especially to those who died in battle.

For both good and bad, our Christian culture is much like this story. We all want our heroes, and we look to our leaders to be that for us. We want them to be larger than life. But there are no “larger than life” heroes in the Kingdom of God. There are only servants, and all of us are flawed. Those who strive for the glory, or live in the light of public admiration, upon closer examination, are just like us.

True heroes in fact never exist in the lime light. Their heroism is measured, not by public praise, but in the trenches with their friends, doing a dirty job that must be done – without fanfare, without acknowledgement, without hope of reward. All a real hero needs is to be connected with his buddies, and to know he is serving a noble cause.

I’m tired of banner-waving Christianity where heroes become larger than life, where we worship personality over purpose, glitz over guts, and fame over friendship. No one can live up to the icons we create for ourselves; they are nothing more than false gods and man-made idols. Every one of them is fallible. Better to keep it real, serve faithfully, and stay focused on Jesus. At the end of the day, He is the only Flag we should be waving anyway.

We need more real Christianity, where our heroes live in every home, serve in every community, and stand for what is right in every quiet corner. They don’t need to be praised by the crowd. They don’t need a crowd at all. They don’t need a band playing behind them, or a chorus singing their introduction. Give them a great cause, one that will honor Jesus Christ and fulfill His purpose, give them a few friends for companionship and encouragement, and help them do their work, and they are satisfied and will get the job done.

Our missionaries are such people. We need many more of them. They’re not in it for the money or the glory. They didn’t go to get rich or to gain public praise. They serve only to make a difference in the world, even if that is in a far away place among unknown people. If more Christians and Christian leaders would live like missionaries the world would soon become a better place to live, and all of us would discover that Jesus, our only true Hero, rises adequately in our midst to lead the way for all of us. He, through our service, would draw the world to Himself.

Doug Gehman