cpm training: a turning point in my ministry

Tomorrow I’m going to Mwakiwasha village to teach the Discovery Bible Study process and Church Planting Movements.  I’m posting today, partly to (as per usual) let you guys know what we’re up to in Geita, but mostly to ask you to pray over the seminar.

[If you don't care to read about my plans for evangelism in the villages surrounding Geita, I understand -- this is a long post.  But please skip to the end and pray over the requests I've listed.  I very much would appreciate that.]

There will be representatives present from four or five churches in the area, totaling 12-20 people.  We will begin the seminar with worship on Sunday evening and then three days of classes, likely four classes per day with a time of worship each evening.

The first things I’ll teach (and briefly) are:

• Why group Bible study is important (vs. a lone teacher)
• Why obedience-based Bible study is important (vs. knowledge-based)
• How to do an oral inductive Bible study (a sort of 3-column Bible study)

The reason I’m wanting to teach the above subjects quickly is that once we’ve worked through the above material, the remainder of the seminar’s studies will be done in small groups using the inductive Bible study method.  I will very much limit my actual teaching beyond initially touching on these three subjects.

checking our religious traditions

Last week I enjoyed studying Matthew 15:1-9 with our interns.  The teachers of the law and Pharisees were upset about Jesus’ disciples failure to follow their traditions by not washing their hands before meals.  Jesus responded by pointing out that the religious leaders were placing their own traditions above God’s commands.

The Pharisees, instead of honoring their parents by helping them financially, claimed that those moneys had been given to God.  It seems to me they’d found a way to count twice the money they were placing in the collection tray.  The Pharisees’ tradition, then, was in direct conflict with God’s commands.  

Obviously, the story teaches us to check our traditions, that they not oppose God’s desires or force us to be disobedient to God.  Traditions which are in conflict with God’s commands are wrong.  

But even church traditions which do not directly oppose God’s rules can be dangerous.  Here are two other reasons to check our churches’ customs and rituals:

missions: two by two

I wrote a little the other day about short-term missions and mentioned I intended to write more on the subject soon.  I even made an outline.  But then that outline got really long, and I became overwhelmed.  So I’ve decided instead to do something even longer!  I’m going to use some space up on the blog writing about missions in general — and eventually I’ll get back to the specific topic of short-term missions (though I think each of these general missions posts will help to inform our study of short-term missions).  So here goes part one (or two?) of what will surely be a meandering study of missions (that really ought not be numbered).  Let’s look some at how Jesus sent (short-term) missionaries out.

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Jesus sent missionaries out two by two (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1).  Why was that important?*

short-term mission trips

Many of you probably already read the wildly popular blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary.  Others of you should surely check it out — but not ALL of you.  TVWM‘s popularity is due, in my opinion, to unabashed honesty and in-your-face transparency, which is refreshing to many of us.  But candid writing of this sort surely is polarizing.  So some of you will not like Jamie’s blog.

All of that said, Jamie, a long-term missionary in Costa Rica, has been writing a fair amount lately about short-term missions (a topic which can also be somewhat polarizing).  For a taste, read Hugs for Jesus, which is a snapshot of what I consider to be short-term missions at its worst.

As you might suspect, I often find myself thinking about mission strategies, both long- and short-term.  And I sometimes — should you catch me in a mood – complain that I’m in favor of doing away with short-term missions.  

Jesus prays for disunity

Forgive my tone today.  I’ve been reading in preparation for Easter sermons, and I’m in a bit of a bad mood.  Just before being arrested and crucified, Jesus prays for all the future believers in the world, and much of his prayer is for unity.  But we’ve apparently opted to read his words in this way:

10 ideas for more effective teaching

Matt Dabbs is an associate minister at the Northwest Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, Florida.  He works a great deal in education and small groups and has one of the best Christian blogs (a truly incredible amount of content) on the internet.  He blogs at Kingdom Living, though I particularly want to direct you towards his Bible Class Archive, which offers teaching materials to be used free of charge, provided you credit the author.  And there are over a dozen talented teachers who have submitted lessons to his archive.

I’ve asked Matt to offer us a few suggestions to those of us who are Bible teachers.  But his ideas will be helpful to any teacher, no matter the subject.

joy and caravaggio

Ted Dahlman, part 4 of 4.  He reviews super hero movies.

 

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About the most painful things you can experience is giving birth. I know this for a fact because it even hurts to watch.

joy and facebook profile pictures

Ted Dahlman, part 3 of 4.  He has his own blog.

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Probably the most important choice people can make is what to use as a profile picture on Facebook.

joy and the avengers

Ted Dahlman, post 2 of 4.  He likes super heroes.

 

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Most parents think their kids are the cutest in the world. They are wrong. My kid is*. Every day she does something cuter than she did the day before. One cute thing about her is how independent she is. For instance, we started brushing her teeth as soon as she got them, and she hated it. We finally figured out it was because she wanted to do it herself.

joy and military boot camp

Ted Dahlman is one of my best friends.  We met in China, and spent three years working together there (he stayed a fourth).  Unlike me, Ted is an actual writer.  He studied English for an undergraduate degree and holds a master’s degree in fine arts and playwriting.  Yeah, cool.  He’s currently training for some government work.  This is part one, of Ted’s four part series on joy here at aliens and strangers.  Oh, and Ted blogs here.

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Fun weighs fifteen grams and comes in one pound bags for about three dollars. What about joy?