Thursday, March 20, 2008
Perspectives, 714 Assignment
Please read and respond to the article, "Charting Your Journey to the Nations," by Steve Hoke and Bill Taylor, beginning on page 714 in your Perspectives on the World Christian Movement book. You will be required to respond to at least one other student's comments to successfully complete this assignment. Please ensure that you put your name in parenthesis if you post anonymously.
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10 comments:
These men just practiced Jn.2:10 “And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.” They have kept the best part till the end. “Part of the idea of “finishing well” is to become the kind of person who helps others to “start well.” Becoming an example and a mentor to others may set them on a course to surpass your wildest dreams.” We so that by everything else mentioned earlier.
That should be the goal of every Christian. The world says, “I may teach you everything you know buy I will not teach you everything I know.” They call that job security. Christ says just the opposite, I will teach you everything I know. Everything church member should be in the process of training their replacement so when God moves them, there is no hole left behind but their “Timothy” has been trained already and can step into their shoes with a seamless transition, and we are not missed. Now we will be missed personally however, the ministry will not miss us. We should all be in the process of training our replacement. It can be said the real test of how well we are training others can be seen in how well things go when we are not around.
That is done by Personal spiritual formation, on-the-job training, exposure to other cultures, Basic education, hands on ministry and internships etc. We should get our replacement trained in evangelism, not necessarily how to visit, but how to lead someone through to salvation, to lead Bible studies, discipling new believers, and how to minister, as well then how to train their replacement in the same things themselves. 2 Tim. 2:2 “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
Mark
Well I guess I’m well on my way to being a missionary according to this article. The first two Phases of in charting your Journey were quite familiar to me. I have completed some and am currently working on others. Phase Three is yet to be told in my story. My favorite statement made is on page 716, “Effective missionaries don’t just emerge fully formed from their educational experience.” This is of great comfort to me in that I will be graduating soon and don’t feel quite ready. I’m more prepared for sure, but not “fully formed.” My goal is to tackle phase three. (Meisha Deane)
Meisha,
The individual steps I thought were pertaining to the missionary. I know in his introduction and concluding comments he made it sound like it pertained to everyone (and rightly it should) but the actual steps did not. The real struggle came in for me to try to apply it do the “grower” as he called us. The contacting a mission agency, assignment search, and apprenticeship applied to the missionary directly. We need to then take it a step farther and see how it can fit to our lives, if we are “staying behind.”
Mark A.
Mark,
I don't like the term staying behind. As we have been discussing in class, God has called each of us to witness. The steps in this article are helpful for a foreign missionary. There are steps that all of us must take to be able to do what God has called us to do. Those are found in His Word. (Meisha Deane)
I greatly appreciated the quote, " God has a distinctive purpose for your life which involves providing His guidance to take you exactly where He wants you to be. That place is worth seeking in faith. " This entire artile lays put the importance of practical forethought and planning. I think these were very effective steps to this process and I loved that they may for the most part be applied to all people (whether serving locally or on a foreign mission)(Bethany)
Meisha,
It is encouraging to know that we don't head out fully prepared and ready to go. It scares me sometimes to think that in a year I will be graduated and by paper terms, "ready to go." I don;t think I will ever feel "prepared fully"...but people like you are encouragements to people like me...Keep it up! I can't wait to see how God uses your life in Ukraine :) (Bethany)
Once again, I'm not big of step-by-step methods, but I really enjoyed this particular article based on the simple fact that the Lord is calling me to foreign missions. The three phases are very applicable for effective mission work. You must be able to stretch yourself in order to grow closer to the Creator. You must stretch yourself to reach a culture that needs Jesus. And, you must stretch/grow yourself in your education of the Word of God, as well as a basic education. Second, you must link with churches to achieve a common goal. Matthew 28:19. Last, you must have on the job experience. You can't be good at something unless you've practiced it, unless you've worked on it, and unless you know your strengths and weaknesses. This article really hit hard, and awakened my thought process. (John Hyman)
Bethany
I think you hit it right on the head. This article is great, and very useful for planning ahead for mission work. We, as Christians, should go in to different cultures and countries ready to reach and to learn, not wasting time learning about the culture and the country. Instead, we should be spending time engaging the culture. Man, I'm really excited about what God is going to do with the students in this class in the near future. (John Hyman)
Getting plugged into your local church and growing where you are planted are key to completing the later steps. I really identify with Step one and two. This is because I have been living through these two steps personally over the last few years. My pastor has encouraged me to sprout where God has planted me. God has a ministry with our names on it for us to do. It is up to us on how we handle our present ministries if God will trust us with other ministries.
(JJ)
Jonathon Paul Ryback (JJ)
I remember a sermon one time that Dr. Byrant Preached where he said that we needed to spiritually strech outselves. I remember that sermon because it was the most challenging semester of my life. =) haha (John Hyman)
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