Larry McCrary

new blog site

2009-11-18T18:49:00.003+01:00

Greetings.

This site has moved to www.larrymccrary.com .
I am trying a new look and format. Hope you will catch up with me there.

Please be sure to update your news reader and / or RSS feed to continue receiving my latest posts.

See you at www.larrymccrary.com

First steps in a new culture

2009-11-16T16:43:00.009+01:00

This weekend we had some dear supporters come in for a visit for the weekend. It was such a refreshment and encouragement for us to have them around for a few days and to show them our life here. Plus we got to see a pretty cool castle in the middle of a rain storm. Made us feel we were back in the day.

Inevitably when we talk to people about our life here the question comes up about how are we received in this European context? What are some important first steps?

Let me tell you a little about my experience. First of all, I grew up in the South. I planted and pastored churches in the South. After about eight years of church planting, I joined the staff of a large denominational mission agency for North America in the area of church planter assessment.

In 1999, I began traveling a lot outside the South, and my worldview changed immensely. (I was never able to get rid of the Southern accent though.)

When the Lord began to lead us toward overseas missions, I started asking myself how can I make a difference there? I am just a normal American guy who has a heart for God and, I want to follow Him and tell others about Jesus. How would I be received in another country?

I remember that we talked about this as a family before we moved to Madrid in 2001. We felt there were several things that would help us connect with the culture there – but we knew that being an American would not be one of them. We knew many people have their own ideas about what being American means and often they are not positive.

As we entered into this new culture, we always tried to be aware of three things. We tried to model and teach this to our children. I think these can apply rather you are living overseas or if you are simply visiting as a tourist. Here they are.

1. To make eye contact and smile. Check out this really good post on making friends.

2. To try our best to speak the language of our new culture – to make an effort, even if it was only a word or two. People appreciate that, even if it is incorrect grammatically. Obviously the longer we lived there our friend’s expectation of our language ability grew so this means we have to be constant students of the language.

3. To be humble. I must admit being humble was not a hard thing to do once I tried number two on the list; 5-year-olds would remind me how badly I spoke! But many people naturally think Americans are loud and arrogant. We wanted to break that stereotype and at the same time reflect the attitude of Christ.

Why are these three things important?

What would you add to the list?

Life after college

2009-11-13T13:03:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago I was able to lead several teaching sessions for a group of new missionaries here in Europe with imb. They have been on the field for less than a year. This is a time where they can reconnect with some people whom they were in pre-field training with at the beginning. It is also a time for refreshment, encouragement and teaching.

This was the second time this month I was so encouraged by people who have dropped what they were doing or planning on doing and followed the Lord's direction. You can read about the first trip here. I was able to go with a good friend David Putman with ChurchPlanters.com

Back to my teaching time at this missionary conference. There are a special group of young people within this group of new workers that I especially admire. These are young men and women who after college come to serve 2 - 3 years on a church planting team. They do some amazing things and have some great stories to tell about how God is working in their lives and the lives of the people they live among.

One thing that I am so impressed with these Journeymen (this is the designation that imb uses for this program) is that they could be getting started with their careers or working on another degree or even getting married. None of those things are bad things but instead they have put those things on hold to go serve the Lord overseas for a couple of years. As I look back at my early years I wish I had considered such a program. It was not even a bleep on my radar screen at that time.

So here is a shout out to the Journeymen . Thanks for all you do. You are making a HUGE difference.

Keep up the great work!

More soon.

Margins

2009-11-11T11:23:00.001+01:00

I like this verse from the Apostle Paul.

making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:16

When I think of Phillip who was told by the Lord to go south on the dessert road he did not know what opportunities he would have. We see in scripture that he obeyed and went south and as a result the Lord directed him to a chariot with an Ethiopian official. He is able to help the guy understand scriptures and was invited in to share the Gospel. He made the most of the opportunity.

I also think of Levi (later known as Matthew). We see in scripture where he was busy doing the tax collecting thing and Jesus came up and said come and follow me. He immediately got up, left what he was doing and followed Jesus. Again, I see an opportunity and I see a person making the most of it.

I think when we are faced with an opportunity from the Lord there is a sense of us needing to obey that leading. However, I know how I live. I know that I live pretty closely to my calendar and schedule. I am guilty of putting one thing on top of another.

This is why I am writing about margins. We need to have some margins in our life in order to have time for those special moments that the Lord orchestrates or presents to us. I find when I live without margins that I am simply not as open to interruptions. But if I can plan some margin in my day then I often find the Lord giving me some unique ministry opportunities that often lead to spiritual conversations.

When I find myself going from one place to another then I often do not have time to talk with the store clerk or person on the street, etc. I do not see many days where my calendar is completely blank but I am trying to do better at the way I schedule my day.

more soon.

El Presente

2009-11-09T17:37:00.007+01:00

This morning I was enjoying a nice run in the cold and in the rain. A average day in the Forest.
When I do not run with other guys I normally do the ipod thing and run with Spanish music.
Don't ask me why. It makes me run fast. Not really.

This morning I was listening to Julietta Venegas and her relatively new song El Presente.

I love the lyrics and one line grabs my attention.
It says: "El presente es lo unico que tengo" which translated by me means: "The present is all we have". As followers of Jesus we do have a future hope.

But I also know that I sometimes live my life in the past thinking back to the things I could have done, should have done or hyper evaluating my life or just simply get marred down in the past.

However, the greater tendency for me is to think about the future. What lies ahead? Where will I live? What will I do? Where will I go visit? What will our ministry be like next year? etc..

What I have found and was reminded of in a weird sort of way this morning on my run is that I need to do better at living in the present. I need to enjoy the moment. One of my huge take aways by living in Spain was that I think they do a great job of living in the present. Whatever they may be doing at the time is the most important thing. Most other things can wait.

But me, I am always thinking of what is next? My next appointment. My next phone call to make or tweet to write or facebook status update to post. I think the implications for me are significant. It enriches my marriage, my parenting and my friendships to live this way.

I also believe from a missional perspective that if I live my life in the present then I am more likely to be tuned in when the Holy Spirit leads and guides me to be in conversation with someone or to go to this place or do this thing instead of always thinking of the next big thing.
When I am always thinking ahead I rarely leave enough margins in my life to have a divine appointment. But that is another post in the future. smile.

More soon.

language learning, the final chapter

2009-11-04T09:07:00.000+01:00

If you are reading this and you are a pastor or worship leader then I want to ask your forgiveness on the front end. Seriously. I am not a pastor nor a worship leader though I have been a pastor before. I have never tried this nor even thought of it til now. I know that Sunday comes around every 7 days and your weeks can become quite full. The last thing you want is for someone who is currently not doing this to try to suggest some new ideas for worship. Thus, this is my asking forgiveness on the front end. Maybe some day I will pastor again. If I do I think I would possibly try these out.

Our idea is how do we help our church learn a foreign language?

Here are my "what if''s"

What about getting a translator and have your sermon translated into another language one Sunday? Warning: If you typically speak for 30 minutes you would need to cut down how long your sermon would be since the translator repeats every word you say. smile.

What if the worship leader could teach the church a worship song in the desired language? This would take several weeks but I bet after a few weeks you would be surprised how well the people do. I have heard "Shout to the Lord" in at least 8 different languages so it the words are out there. Be sure to have the slides done correctly in the other language.

Read the scripture in another language. Print it out in English and the other language.

Have the prayer in a different language. (I am not talking about tongues. smile)

If you have a printed worship bulletin what about identifying some key words in another language?

Hola - Hello
Guten Tag- Good Day
Oracion - Prayer
Amistad - Friendship

Find ways you can introduce vocabulary words to your church. Perhaps with having bi-lingual posters or banners.

Play background music from another language or culture in the foyer or community areas of the church.

What if you did a little of this each week? In other words don't just do this on a mission emphasis Sunday but do this for an entire series or make it a part of who you are as a church.

The BIG thing that we must realize in language learning is that most often it is a life long journey. We have to be learners!

Do you have other ideas that we could try?
Have you tried any of these?

more soon!

language learning

2009-11-02T09:59:00.000+01:00

I recently spent some time talking with Sarah Perkins who is a Language and Culture Resource Specialist for IMB, Europe. Thanks Sarah for your work on this and for passing it along for others to use.

Here are some of her ideas and some great links. This can be helpful for new workers coming to the field BUT I think there are some great ideas for churches who are wanting to be prepared to have an incarnational presence on the field whether that is a one week trip or sending long term teams. Here you go!

Language and Culture Preparation Before Field Arrival

Some Suggestions…

Read about cross-cultural expectations and adaptation.

American Cultural Baggage, by Nussbaum
Cross Cultural Connections and Cross Cultural Servanthood, by Duane Elmer
Culture from the Inside Out, by Alain Cornes
Figuring Foreigners Out and The Art of Crossing Cultures, by Craig Storti

Become familiar with principles and methods related to language learning.

How to Learn Any Language. Resource with lots of principles, ideas, etc. about learning languages in general
Language Impact Some ideas for language learners
Program In Language Acquisition Techniques (PILAT)
Language Acquisition Made Practical (LAMP), by Brewster and Brewster
Lingua Links
Other resources, by SIL
Language Coach and Language Learners CDs by Institute for Cross Cultural Training (ICCT)

Begin language learning now.

Use Internet websites and computer-based software. Here are a few. Surf the web for others.

Social language learning online.
BYKI language learning program
Rosetta Stone. Online or computer-based language learning program.
Online language learning.
An auditory learning method.
http://www.pdictionary.com/
http://www.quia.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Take classes at a local university
Hold language classes at your church and taught by a qualified teacher

Some practical suggestions:

Learn at least the following things before arrival in the country:

Alphabet (if other than Latin-based)
Basic greetings and leave-takings
Basic expressions of politeness
Numbers
Basic expressions needed for shopping
Basic expressions needed for ordering food and drink

Learn about the country (history, current events, important people, worldview, etc)
Read the newspaper online
Listen to music in the target language
Locate speakers of the target language for conversation groups (such as language teachers in the local schools and universities)
Follow the progress of a national sports team in the country where you are going

Culture

2009-10-30T10:20:00.006+01:00

I know I am in the middle of my "Church Learning a Foreign Language" series. I have my next post ready for Monday and it is full of some great links and ideas from a person who is a language coach for overseas workers here in Europe.

Learning language is important. However, another aspect of living overseas is being able to adapt to the culture. I have seen people who have done well in learning a second language really struggle in adapting to another culture.

Last night we went to Herbstmesse in Basel.
It is quite a BIG event. I read where it has been going on for almost 500 years. It is like going to a county fair but in an urban setting and it is totally spread out all over the city. I love the giant Ferris Wheel in front of the church. It is quite fun. I did not see the livestock or petting zoo. I did not see the "Fairest of the Fair" contest. I doubt they have one. However, there are a lot of food options. Check out this link.

But it is an important part of the city life in Basel during this time of the year. It is an important cultural event. We have been every year that we have lived here and love it. I must admit it costs quite a bit per ride (the exchange rate is not friendly to us right now) so we do not do many rides but the kids love it and it is chance to hang with their friends and a chance for us to try some yummy food.

What are the events you should go to in your city? How important is your presence there?
What do you learn about the people when you go to these festivals.?

Can learning be fun? I think so.

Start Up Ideas for Language Learning, part one

2009-10-29T13:00:00.004+01:00

Here are some ideas about a few ways your church can get started learning a foreign language. Grammar and vocabulary are important. I love being able to say this. I hear this all of the time from my German teacher.

First up...

If you have an extra room in your church why not set up a computer lab or learning center? You can make use of such products as Rosetta Stone in the language of your choice. There are plenty of software packages around. I have enjoyed Rosetta Stone in Spanish and German.

Buy multiple copies of Rosetta Stone and make them available at your church for people to check out. Be sure to let people know about this option and but plenty of copies to go around. I would suggest putting a time limit for how long they can have the software checked out.

Do a google search and find a few online language learning tools that you can promote to the people trying to learn a language. Ask someone to be the resource person for your church in this endeavor.

Go online and find out if there are language learning schools in your city. One church found a site where they could learn Italian http://www.italianforfun.com/index.cfm located in their own city.

If there is an University or Junior College in the city find out if you could hire a professor to teach a class for a semester at your church or better yet encourage your people to enroll in a class at the university or Junior College. Offer some scholarship funds for people completing the course work.

Find out if you have a few language experts in your church and see if they will become tutors for your students.

Encourage your college students to take classes in the desired language.

Promote the idea amongst your college students to go to a country and do a study abroad program for a semester or two. They will not only learn the language but they will also have ministry opportunities while there.

Same suggestion but for people who have retired and can take several months to study abroad.

What are some other ideas?

Next Up .. Putting your language learning to practice in your own community.

TCFL - Teaching Churches Foreign Languages

2009-10-26T17:47:00.003+01:00

The Idea

I mentioned before about a conversation that I had with a church leader about his desire to see his church learn another language.

This thought has grabbed my attention so I thought what would I do if I pastored in the states again. Perhaps if any church needing a pastor reads my blog it would take care of that possibility but here goes the thought.

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) is a program that many universities and language schools have throughout the world. I guess our new institute can be called TCFL (Teaching Churches Foreign Languages) Okay, so that was bad. I really do not have a institute but this is the idea. How can a church learn a foreign language?

I guess before we get to the “how” we need to look at why would we even consider such a thing.

Many churches today that I work with have an interest in reaching a particular people group with the gospel. They have been going on short term trips all over the place and I hear quite often they are tired of being spread out and they are ready to focus their efforts.

As they think about the “going” implications they also realize that in many cases those same peoples live in North America and often in their own cities. They begin to think about how can they connect with them in their own community. Therefore when they are putting together their mission strategy they are thinking both where they are and in other parts of the world.

They are also saying that they feel the Great Commission belongs to the church and that they need to be doing more and outsourcing missions less. They want to be involved strategically.

With this being the context one key aspect of cross cultural missions is how do you have an incarnational presence amongst the people? Language obviously is one element of that. These churches are thinking "how can we be better prepared?" If it is one person or a family then they normally arrive on the field and start language school for an amount of time until they can become proficient in the target language. What needs to happen if you do this for an entire church?

Here are a few foundational points that I think are very important if you are really serious about TCFL.

Vision of leadership - I believe key leaders in the church have to have the vision to see this as important. I think if they are trying to learn the language and using the language themselves it will go a long way in creating ownership of the vision to the people. Some how the church has to constantly put this vision before the people on a regular basis. More ideas on this in another post.

Time and Resources- The church has to find some ways to put this into the two important value checkers: their calendar and their resources.

Think Small Groups - One of the best places to start is with the small group structure of the church. Perhaps it is with the first groups going out locally or internationally.

Committed locally and internationally- It is important to be trying to find ways to minister to the people in that language group locally. So this means the church needs to focus on the group(s) they are wanting to work with.

Identify your language talent in your church. Chances are you have some people in your church that are fluent other languages. Discover those people and the languages that they speak and start working with them.

I will post some ideas on how to see this happen soon.

language learning

2009-10-21T16:58:00.003+02:00

I heard today in a seminar that 56 percent of all Europeans can converse in two languages.
11 % can converse in three languages.

This is really amazing to me. It was a struggle to learn Spanish for me 8 years ago. Now I am trying to learn German but finding it very difficult. I do not know when I can make it to three.

We really want to see the church as missionary. We work with a lot of North American churches who are interested in finding ways to have an incarnational presence on the mission field. They want to be prepared when they come over on short term trips.

I have been thinking some about a conversation that I had last week with a church. They are wanting to have a presence in an European country. They are struggling with how can they do this and not know the language. They know they can use their English on occasion. Many Europeans speak English but they also know that in many cases in order to get to a deeper conversations they need to learn the heart language of the people.

They are exploring ways in which they can learn a second language as a church. Not just one or two people in the church or even the mission team that may be coming on a short term trip but they are wanting to emphasize learning a second language as a church so the Lord can use them both in the states and abroad.

I like this idea.

What do you think this could look like?
Any ideas that you can share about ways to go about this?

Working in Europe

2009-10-19T09:48:00.003+02:00

As you may know I am involved in a couple of missional networks. This week I have been working quite a bit on the Skybridge Community.

In reading a post by Grady Bauer on MissionalSpace it reminded me again why we need networks of marketplace people and study abroad students, artists, etc.. living out their lives incarnationally abroad.

The Skybridge Community is one such network that exists that seeks to identify and equip marketplace workers in Europe for effective missional living.

Here is a little more about what we want to see happen.

Discovery: Identifying and engaging marketplace workers and students in North America and Europe for these purposes.

Sending: Strengthen ties to a church in North America who will “adopt” the individual / family who is working and living missionally overseas.

Equipping: Equipping these people for evangelism, discipleship and church planting within their natural circles of influence in their workplace and daily lives.

Community: Creating healthy support systems throughout Europe where “Skybridgers” can have community and support.

What do we hope to see as a result?
We want to see people coming to faith in Jesus Christ and discipled. We hope to see new churches being planted throughout Europe as a result.

Our network is growing.

We typically have four different types of people who join Skybridge Community.

Churches in North America who are looking to adopt a worker in Europe.
Church Planting teams or missionary teams in Europe looking for people to partner with as they engage their people in Europe.
People who are already working in Europe.
People who are looking for jobs in Europe.

The last category is our most popular and it can also hold the biggest challenge. It can be tough finding a job in Europe.

I ran across a site today that you may want to check out. http://www.eurojobs.com/

Please feel free to tell others about this network. We really want to make a difference in Europe. We hope that the Skybridge Community will be used by the Lord to see the peoples of Europe come to know Him.

Remembering

2009-10-14T10:55:00.000+02:00

Do you ever have a verse that just keeps coming to your mind?

I was in a place not too long ago where I read the below verses and I cannot get them out of my mind. In fact I wrote about it last week.

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Romans 1:8

I have heard some amazing stories from people who are planting churches in some hard to reach places. I am compelled to pray for these people and to find ways to support and encourage them. I hope you will as well. God is truly moving in some powerful ways.

Quite frankly I hope I do not forget these stories anytime soon.

I picked up a book last week that if you get the chance to read you should. It is a different story about a country we read and hear about a lot in the news. Iran: Open Hearts in a Closed Land by Mark Bradley. It is a quick read but powerful. Grab a copy.

Europe Link

2009-10-12T11:10:00.001+02:00

I get the privilege to travel to a lot of places.

I do enjoy seeing new places.

I enjoy having cups of coffee in various parts of the world.

I like studying the new cultures.

I like meeting and talking to people from these places.

It is really more than just my enjoyment.
I go to these places to get a glimpse at what God is doing.
I hope my talks can help encourage workers who are there. More times than not I end up being way more encouraged and blessed than what I have to give. God is truly doing some amazing things in the world.

Though this past month I have been able to go to new places most of the time I am in Europe.
I want to pass a long a glimpse of life and ministry in Europe. I hope you will check out this site but also go there often.

The idea is that new content will come on the site daily. If the Lord has put upon your heart a certain country, city or people group in Europe simply find that tag on the blog and click on it. You will find prayer requests, opportunities for ministry and quick facts about that country.

Here is the link !

Enjoy.

Surprised by Encouragement

2009-10-06T08:39:00.000+02:00

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name. Romans 1:5

A few months ago I was invited by my good friend David Putman who is one of the pastors at MountainLake Church near Atlanta and also the co-founder of churchplanters.com to join a small team on a mission endeavor. Our team was to train and encourage some house church planters.

I like to be prepared for trips such as these so I had put some time in praying, studying and writing out some training sessions. I really did not know what to expect. It was my first trip to this part of the world. I knew just a little about the people attending this school. I knew they were going to some very interesting places to plant churches. I have heard about their work and some of the powerful ways the Lord has been using them.

After the first day of our teaching during our quiet time and prayer time as a group the Lord really spoke to me on these verses.

Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son. Romans 1:8,9

I felt an extreme privilege to be able to teach some of the things that the Lord has taught me over the years to this group of people. I hope that I was able to bring some encouragement and help to them in their ministry.

What I know however was that they encouraged me greatly. I received so much more than I gave. They were a blessing to me. Their lives serve as a testimony to the way the Holy Spirit gives boldness in our witness.

One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. Romans 1:10 - 12

It's football time in Portugal Part two

2009-10-01T17:56:00.003+02:00

Here is the next part of "Football in Portugal" from Brady in Lisbon.

Fast forward a year and I have a few other workers helping coach. We decided it
was time to start a Bible study with these guys. So each Thursday night I
would invite everyone on our team to my house for a Bible study. We had 5-10
guys almost every Thursday for about 9 months. Then we moved so we moved our
Bible study to Chili's. During this time, we would watch American football
games on DVD and conversations with the guys on the team. We had two great
conversations with Bruno M. and Bruno D. Both shared their anger towards God
and the "church." Bruno M. shared that he would rather be dead then ever
live a life like ours. But both of these men continued to come to Bible
study.

In June, we had a football camp and had a church from Aledo, Texas come to
Portugal with former UT and NFL player, Dusty Renfro. During these 3 days
these volunteers poured their hearts into the guys on the field and shared
their faith non-stop. The Portuguese players loved Dusty and the team and
thought the world of these guys. The last day Dusty suited up and hit these
guys and then stood up in front of them - with blood running down his arms
and legs and shared his faith. This was the first time these guys had ever
seen a "though guy" talk about Jesus this way. He had them all pray and you
could not hear a sound. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever
witnessed in my life. I had not seen God work like this before.

One month later one of our players gives his life to Christ and is baptized
in the ocean. A week later another player (Bruno D.) saw the video and asked
if he can be baptized too. This Sunday, Bruno D. was baptized and attended
church for the first time since he was 9 years old. Another player, Tiago,
has asked to be baptized this week as well. Bruno M. has prayed the prayer,
but is not ready to give his whole life to Christ yet - but he is close!

If you would have told me a year ago that these 4 guys would accept Christ
as their Savior, I would have laughed at you. Bruno M. has been married for
4 years and leads one of the roughest lives I have ever seen. Tiago broke
his cousin's arm with a hammer because he broke into Tiago's house. Bruno D.
well, he is the craziest of them all. As He does with all people, God had a
plan for these guys from the beginning. As for the park where I first
encountered these guys, they had never practiced their before nor have they
ever practice there again. God had a plan for these guys. I have been so
blessed to be a part of their lives. To see what God has done in the last
few weeks is unbelievable!

See a cool video about their ministry here.

Interested in football in Europe?
Check out this website.

Interested in living and working in Europe check out Skybridge Community.

It's Football Time in .... Portugal

2009-09-30T15:33:00.000+02:00

One of my favorite things to hear each Fall is "It's football time in Tennessee". You have to imagine that in a loud and Tennessean accent. This is what the announcer screams over the microphone as the Tennessee Vols come out to the field. Well, this post is not about UT football. We have to think about other things during these rebuilding years. smile.

Have you ever heard of this? It's football time in Portugal? It has a cool ring to it. A few years back John Grisham wrote a book called "Playing for Pizza". It is a novel about an ex-NFL quarterback who plays football in a small town in Italy. American football in Europe is not the most popular sport but you are now seeing teams pop up in a lot of cities.

Over the next two posts I am going to tell you about a guy who plays football in Lisbon Portgual.
Take a quick glance at a team video.

Here is the beginning of Brady's story.

My role in Portugal is to take care of all the financial and logistical
items for a team of workers. This includes visas, housing, cars, insurance, taxes,
etc.. in Portugal. When God called us to go to Portugal I viewed myself as a support person and really wanted to do everything I could do to free the people who are great evangelists to do their work, without having to worry about budgets.

About a year on the field, my family and I were watching the Houston Texans beating the Cowgirls, and we decided to go grab dinner. While we were waiting for the restaurant to make our sandwiches, we went for a walk. We rounded the corner and found a football
team - full pads, playing AMERICAN football. I walked right up to them and
asked if o could play.

They offered me a tryout the following week. A week later I was on the team and a month later I was the starting QB. Two months after that, I was the offensive coordinator and month after, that I was the head coach. During this whole time I viewed football as a great tool to
learn the language - God had not shared with me that he wanted me to use
this as His tool to witness to these men.

More soon!

conversation in a Taxi

2009-09-29T21:50:00.000+02:00

One of the guys who went with us on the Jet Set was Marshall.
Great guy from Houston.
His parents are very well respected workers that served in Europe. Marshall spent some of his days as a youth in Barcelona but I will not hold that against him. smile.

I hope you will take a look at this video. You can get a feel for how one participant processes the information. One really cool thing is that as we are trying to understand a new culture at the same time we often process what this means at "home".

Each morning on a Jet Set we have a few hours of conversations.
We spend time praying.
We talk about some of the impressions the Lord is giving us each day. We pray for each of others and the ministries that we see on the ground.
We also pray for the people we met the day before as we go about the city.

Our next one is coming up in May 2010 to London and Paris with Ed Stetzer and Daniel Montgomery from Sojourn Church in Louisville.

After our debriefing time we normally have some pretty cool conversations about some practical ideas about missions. This trip we talked about the person of peace, oikos evangelism or what we call tribes, mapping the city, working with other partners, etc...

The Church as Missionary

2009-09-28T18:09:00.004+02:00

In many ways our end game at Upstream is to help the church think and act as a missionary. Though we are finished with this trip the conversation continues with these churches. Many of them have us back to their places where we can start engaging in a conversation with their church.

Our next trip is to London and Paris in May of 2010. Check out our site at www.theupstreamcollective.org for the dates and the initial application.

The Meaning of Life

2009-09-27T12:21:00.001+02:00

One of the things we do on these trips is meet people who have a wide variety of ministries. I was really struck the other evening when we went downtown to an area where there are a lot of single mothers just trying to survive. Many are without hope.

Take a look at a story of someone who finds hope.

My desire is that God will use these posts to create in you a desire to help people who are often overlooked.

Maybe it is in your neighborhood.

Maybe it is in another part of the world.

More soon.

Receptivity

2009-09-25T12:31:00.012+02:00

I have learned some lessons this week.

We normally line up some guest speakers who are from the country we are visiting. One day during our trip, we heard a guy talk about presenting the gospel. He used "EvangeCard" which is a type of tract. I am not a real big "gospel tract" user. I normally do not use that method of evangelism. I normally focus on getting to know a person relationally and then sharing the Gospel within the context of the relationship. I try to let the person know that I am a Christ follower early in our relationship and this will at times set the stage for spiritual conversations.

At the end of our time that day, he challenged us to go out and talk to some people. As we finished the time and people left the room he asked if I would go out with him for a while. What do you say?

So we took off and went to a near by section of town. He was the translator but he wanted me to engage in a conversation with an older gentlemen setting on a bench. I looked across the street and saw a group of people playing basketball and I thought to my self this is where I need to be talking to people. This is much more in my comfort zone.

I know in the context where I serve most of the time you need to hang out some before you talk. I raised my objections and he told me that I needed to understand his context some. He said "you are in this country and these people here actually respect you as an American most of the time. They will listen to you. They may or may not accept the message but they will listen and talk to you".

I still did not believe him until about 10 seconds later when he led me over to this man to talk. I started the conversation with a hopeful "do you speak English?" He did not but luckily I had my friend who was able to translate for me. Sure enough I asked if I could share something with him and he said yes. I spent the next 10 minutes talking to this man and he responded favorably. I did not do a good job with folding the card the way it was suppose to be folded but luckily I had help and I tried to focus on presenting the gospel message. I was especially excited at the end when he told me he knew where he could go buy a Bible and my new evangelist friend invited him to his house church this weekend? I feel better that there was some follow up to this conversation and I can only pray and hope that life change would continue to happen in this man's life.

Several things that I learned from this.

I needed to trust the cultural guide who was helping me in this situation.

I have had the opportunity this week to talk with several Taiwanese people and all of them have been quite friendly and open to talking about spiritual things.

Obedience is important. Again, I am not a tract type of guy but I knew in my heart I was suppose to go with this guy. I am glad I did.

Taiwan seems to be a receptive place but the receptivity is seems to be about being open to spiritual conversations and not so much making decisions to follow Christ on the spot. I am still processing this but I think it takes time and the trust of a significant relationship.

This is my first time in Asia. Without a doubt it has stretched my thinking regarding contextualization amongst other things.

more soon.

The Temple

2009-09-25T03:54:00.008+02:00

When I visited the temple today I saw many rooms with gods in them.

We heard this from a worker here.
“People become what they worship.”

When I saw the gods on the altars here it was very apparent that people worship idols. As you walk down the streets you will see many of the buildings that will have one room or apartment that is open on the outside and that is the place dedicated for the god of that building or the small temple for that building.

You can get a picture of what these verses are referring about as you live and observe people in cultures similar to this one.

Psalm 15
1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us  but to your name be the glory,   because of your love and faithfulness.
2 Why do the nations say,  "Where is their God?"
3 Our God is in heaven;  he does whatever pleases him.
4 But their idols are silver and gold,   made by the hands of men.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,  eyes, but they cannot see;
6 they have ears, but cannot hear,  noses, but they cannot smell;
7 they have hands, but cannot feel,  feet, but they cannot walk;  nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them will be like them,  and so will all who trust in them.

However, while very apparent that many worship objects made with hands here I think about the idols that we often worship where I live in Europe or in the states. I think about how we can have as our idols our jobs, companies, possessions, family and many more.

What do we become?

Anything that takes first place instead of our Lord becomes an idol. The obvious idols here helped me to recognize some more hidden ones in my life where I live. I think of Matthew 6:33 and give a honest look at what do I seek first?

Taxi's and Temples

2009-09-24T01:21:00.008+02:00

Half of the challenge in an urban environment is how do you get from one place to another?
On these trips we do a lot of:

walking
metro
and even riding a bus

Sometimes though it is easier if you are in a crunch to cram into a taxi but it can be dangerous.

For some really good insights on our trip take a look Rodney Calfee's blog.

We were on our way to a temple the other night. Here is a great clip about Taipei and some of the religous beliefs here.

Dead Women Walking

2009-09-23T05:34:00.008+02:00

Last night we went to a completely different part of the city.
We went there with a couple of workers from OMF. You should check out their site and learn more about their ministry here.

We visited a ministry center, temple, a night market and an area of prostitution. Check out this book called "Dead Women Walking".

Here is a video I took last night.

It is about two ministry centers that are side by side. One is a restaurant and the other is a second hand shop. We went shopping and then we ate at the restaurant. Good food. I was impressed.

Their ministry is geared to single mothers. They provide opportunities for affordable housing, food and opportunities to sell items in a second hand store.

Hungry Ghosts

2009-09-21T05:24:00.011+02:00

Yesterday morning we split up and went to various evangelical churches. For an excellent post on one person's observation of our church visits next a look at this.

Later on as we were walking yesterday (which by the way we walk a lot and I love it) we went by stores that had small tables placed out front with food and drink placed upon them. They are set out for "hungry ghosts" to come have a drink and some food to satisfy their spirit. These are for people who have died but lived an unfinished or incomplete life so they are called "hungry ghosts". I found this quite fascinating and disturbing at the same time. The spiritual darkness here is quite apparent. As we continued to walk around yesterday afternoon to various places we would see quite a few of these sites.

We also walked around and would see neighborhood temples. They were quite small but a place where a person could come to a altar.

We see two forms of religion here that are quite prevalent; Buddhism and Folk Religion. We will see more of this as we move around the city. Tonight we will talking to a person who will be explaining to us about some of their local beliefs.

More soon.

The City - First impressions

2009-09-20T00:55:00.003+02:00

We arrived last night. It was a long night and day of travel but I am here safely and thankful for the journey. Learned much about the city from my airplane ride as I sat next to a very nice and talkative guy from here. I simply enjoy learning about one's culture. I pulled out my language sheet and he was helping me pronounce words. Wow. I thought German was hard. Both languages are painful to me. smile.

Several first impressions.

The city is densely populated. There are 22 million people who live on the island and many live in this city. Wow. Even on a Sunday morning here there are plenty of people out and about.

I think one out of two people here have a motor scooter. They may be a stretch but it does not seem like I am off by a lot.

They love tea. It seems to be free flowing. I am enjoying a cup this morning. Not too bad! HOWEVER, I was able to get my Starbucks City Mug last night. There are plenty of Starbucks here and to my surprise 7/11 stores. No Big Gulp for me though.

The people enjoy conversation. Maybe I have been fortunate but I have had several good conversations with people here.

Okay. I have only been here 12 hours and I have much to learn. It is time to get outside.

More Soon,

Connecting Flight

2009-09-18T17:23:00.005+02:00

Sitting here in the Amsterdam airport waiting on my plane. I only have about 4 more hours til take off. This is the point of arrival for us when we moved to Spain. Our connecting flight to Madrid was from here. Many memories of entering a new culture here. I remember two things rather vividly.

Most people here talk at least three languages. I am amazed at the Dutch. They are great at languages.

The second thing I remember is the playground they have for children. It was a lifesaver for our 6 year old at the time. I do not remember the Starbucks being here but I am thankful for it today. smile.

I was thinking on my flight up here about something that Roger Greenway said in one of my classes some years ago at Trinity. It was a class on urban missiology. He was asked about what are the important strategy steps to understand a city and develop a church planting strategy for that city. He gave us 20 steps but he said the most important is to know that you must wear out two pieces of leather;

your shoes
your bible

May that be so this week as we travel.

Final Preparations

2009-09-17T13:39:00.003+02:00

In a few days I will be going to a place that I have never been before. The adventure side of me gets really excited about it. I love to go to places that I have never been. I love seeing new things, learning new cultures, eating new food (well, most of the time).

I like adding to my Starbucks City Mug collection. I know that is silly but it is a habit that I started some years back. I hear that I will be drinking more tea than coffee there but that is okay.
I like learning new custom rules and hearing new languages. At times I like trying to speak them.

But I also know that this crossing of cultures does not come without a challenge.

Language and cultural adaptation does not come easy to me. My teachers in Spanish and German over the last 8 years would echo that statement about language. But when I find myself doing this I know:

It stretches me.
It expands my worldview
Some times I just get over stimulated with all of the new information, sights, sounds and language.

After it is over I am usually very thankful.

I read this article from Almost M the other day. Incredible insights as we cross cultures. It is a three part series and well worth the read. It was one of the reading assignments that I gave the group. I hope they read it. smile.

Please take the time to follow along on my blog over the next week and also on these blogs www.blog.theupstreamcollective.org and www.edstetzer.com and others. If it means something to you feel free to tell others about it. You can also follow me on twitter at LarryMcCrary or TheUpstreamC

We will be going to Asia and learning about their worldview and beliefs. We will be writing and recording some things along the way about our journey.

Pray for us. Stay in touch.

Larry

Back from the roadtrip

2009-09-04T18:23:00.007+02:00

In many ways being able to be on the road these last weeks was a dream come true for me.
I could write a realllllllllllllllly long post about all of the places where visited but you can actually check out www.blog.theupstreamcollective.org

And while I am thinking about it be sure to visit our blog as we go on our next trip to Asia in the coming weeks. We are going to do a virtual vision trip of sorts. So stay tuned.

Here is why our road trip was so cool for me.

One of our dreams as we started The Upstream Collective was to work with young churches ....
We want to help new churches to start to think and act globally from day one. We try to do this as we write, speak, consult, etc..

If I had one "do over" in my church planting life in the states it would be that very thing. I waited way too long to have our church plants get involved internationally.

I kept thinking:
maybe in a while
we need to be a certain size
we need to be more mature as a church.

I had plenty of reasons.

So this summer as we were able to speak with quite a few churches who are young in their church life AND many are exploring ways to take the gospel outside their own local context. If we can help you do this or if you know of a church that has that kind of interest please let me know. Feel free to point them towards our site or get on our free e-newsletter where we try to highlight ways churches can be involved.

If you are a church planter you may want to consider what my good friends David Putman and Shawn Lovejoy are doing at ChurchPlanters.com. They have a coaching network and one of the elements of their coaching has to do with "Going Global".

Mission Opportunity in the U.K.
If you have a student from Oklahoma and want a significant ministry opportunity this summer in the U.K. you should check out this site but you need to do quickly. They have a deadline real soon.

Check out iGo Global website for other opportunities. I consistently hear great things about their work.

Top Five Food / Drink spots from the Tour

2009-09-02T20:55:00.009+02:00

Coming off our tour with www.theupstreamcollective.org I decided that I needed to give a shout out to some of the best places where I ate. Of course we journaled about some other things on our blog and you should check it out for sure but I also like to eat some local food and drink some local coffee.

Here are my top five. All of these could be number one. If your favorite did not make the list please do not be offended. Maybe next time. smile

Andy's Frozen Custard - http://www.eatandys.com/ - My friend Lane Harrison at Lifepoint Ozark took me for my first and second Custard. We were only there two days. Probably the best custard in the world. I would eat way too much of this stuff if I lived there. It is good!

Bongo Javas - Great coffee in the Belmont University area - PLUS I was able to enjoy it with some great friends and my daughter. The best coffee is always enjoyed with others.

Java Joes in Lebanon. Our friend Michael Carpenter of Matthew's Table took us to their coffee shop. Great coffee - PLUS they let me make a double shot cappuncino. I must say I am pretty good at this and could work there some day.

Sam and Andys in Farragut, Tennessee. I always go by there for my Pastrami on Dark Bread. Best deli sandwiches in Knoxvegas.

BBQ - Anytime I am in Alabama I have to go to two places for yummy BBQ: Jim n Nicks and Golden Rule

The Packing List, Part Three

2009-08-27T13:19:00.003+02:00

Still on our Upstream's mini tour this week. Today we are in Lebanon Tennessee just outside of Nashville. We are doing one of our "About Europe" meetings with several area pastors, mission leaders and business people. I hope you will check us out on our blog at www.blog.theupstreamcollective.org

Here is the last of the packing list for a short term mission project. I am sure there are other things to be packed so feel free to add to the list.

The Intangibles

7. A blessing for your host / or people you may be working with while overseas.

In some cases you may be working with a missionary team, a national church or church planter. I always have enjoyed when the volunteer team comes over and blesses us. I know this may sound self-serving since I am a missionary (smile) but you can really be an encouragement for people on the field. Idea: You may want to ask them if there is something that they would like to have from the states or just surprise them with a goodie. It does not have to be a lot. The thought really does count. The other idea is to pray for them and with them during the trip. This is a huge blessing to the workers that live on the field.

8. A smile. When we moved to the field we made a family covenant to smile at the people we met. That sounds really silly but it goes a long way when you are trying to connect with a person. Think about the times you have met people and they were not smiling. Were you impressed? I think everything changes with a good smile. Idea: smile

9. An “ I will try it” attitude. People that come over and do a good job seem to have an “I will try it ” attitude. Ministry in another country can be a challenge. Everything seems different. The food looks, smells and tastes different. Ideas: Seek out restaurants that are not part of American fast food chains but go to where the locals go. Be a “foodie”! While you are preparing for your trip take public transportation and eat at an ethnic restaurant in your city to get out of your normal patterns.

10. A few words that you can speak in the heart language of the people – I will be the first to say that I am not a language expert but I try to always say a few words in whatever country I happen to be in. Language is so important in cross-cultural ministry. You may or may not be fluent when you come on your trip but if you can try to learn some basics it will go a long way in your time overseas.

I am certain there are other things that you should pack. Feel free to add to this list. I wonder what we would put on a list of things “NOT” to pack?

The Packing List, Part two

2009-08-24T16:48:00.004+02:00

Last post I put started my list of ten things to be sure to pack when you go on a short term trip.

Here are some more important Items to take with you on your trip

4. Three - Five Bible stories that you can tell in Basic English. Don’t underestimate the power of the Word. I think if you can find few short Bible stories that mean a lot to you then you will be ready for opportunities the Lord may give you to share how God has transformed your life. Idea: Practice telling these stories to your family or your small group before you coming. They will be quite impressed with your ability to do Bible storying.

5. Your story. I think it is important to be able to tell your personal story of how God changed your life? Can you do it 2 minutes or less? Idea: Use Basic English and cut out the big religious words. You will most likely be communicating to people who speak English as a second language or using a translator. Either way time is important and people understanding you is vital. I have found it might be a good idea to write this out first.

6. Some photos. People love to look at pictures. They are great conversation builders. Try not to show off your “ American stuff” but they love seeing your family, vacation shots, etc.. Idea: Put together a small photo album or put the pictures on your ipod. Think about ways you can communicate your story as you show pictures.

The Packing List

2009-08-21T13:21:00.003+02:00

I have worked with a lot of volunteer teams in the last 8 years living overseas. Most of them do a tremendous job. As I think about these groups that do well I see several things in common for those who do well. I am going to break these up in three different post for your reading enjoyment. :)

They pray a lot before they come

and

They prepare a lot before they come

and

They seem to pack these things for the trip

Don’t forget to pack:

The Obvious

1. Your Bible – Trips can be a great time to hear from God. I know you will be experiencing some long days but try to make some time to read the scripture each day before you go out. I like to recommend people read the book of Acts while they are on a mission trip. Idea: I have heard of some people who give their bible to a person that they really connected with at the end of the week as a gift.

2. Your Journal – I think it is great to write something each day about your trip. What is God teaching you? What is He showing you about the people? How does this apply to the place where you live? Idea: Write down some specific actions points that you can do once you return home. Chances are there are many people groups who live around you in your own city.

3. You prayer supporters back home – You really need good prayer support when you come on these trips. My challenge to each group is to have at least 7 people committed to prayer for them each day. Ideas: I have seen people create a prayer calendar for each day that they are gone. I have seen people blog about that trip as they go and put prayer requests up. I have seen people create a google group for their prayer supporters which offers more security since it is password protected. The point is to enlist friends, family members and your church to prayer for you specifically for this time.

Short Term Mission Teams

2009-08-08T22:21:00.003+02:00

Last week I talked about different types of partnerships.

so far I have written about:

The Sending Church
Prayer Advocates

But what about the Short Term Mission Teams? – People or Groups who come over for a one time project or event.

This would be what I would call a “one-off” project. Honestly in my overseas experience I have usually preferred longer term partnerships with churches BUT often a one time project can lead to a strategic partnership that turns into long term. I think it can be a matter of preference for the worker on the field as they put together their needs.

There are a lot of articles out there about the usefulness of short term teams. Do they serve a purpose other than expanding the worldview and heart for missions for the person or church coming over. While these are two awesome benefits for people who come over I think they can serve in some ways and do some things that we may not be able to do. I think they can compliment our strategy to see people come to Christ and for churches to be planted. It takes intentionality on the part of the missionary to put this into their strategy.

If we do not think ahead in how we can utilize volunteer teams then it can put us in the position of responding to a team who wants to come over with a certain purpose in mind. In other words, inserting them into our ministry whether it is strategic or not. We need to be thinking of ways to proactively work with churches who want to come and serve.

Another good aspect about a one time project is that it gives both the church and the worker the chance to see if the chemistry is good for a longer term ministry relationship. Something that is very important in my opinion.

What do you think?

Are short term teams beneficial?

If so, how have you seen it work effectively?

Coming Soon

2009-08-01T09:28:00.003+02:00

I want to take minute to tell you about this conversation that will be happening soon. My good friend Robert Beckman is part of a network in Florida called ReproducingChurches.com

They are having the Live Sent 2009 Conversation in September and if you can make this I think it promises to be one of the best in 2009. Lots of interaction and dialog. Some of the conversations will be from Alan Hirsch and Neil Cole.

Live Sent 2009

Creating Missional Conversations for the Reproduction of Leaders and New Churches

Lakeland, Florida

September 17 & 18, Thursday 1pm-6pm and Friday 1pm-6pm.

Go to their website www.reproducingchurches.com to register

You will really like these guys and The Upstream Collective enjoys partnering with them.

Total Dependence

2009-07-30T11:54:00.000+02:00

As a worker overseas I see us having several points of engagement with churches and believers throughout the world. I have talked about the Sending church lately. I want to move on to some other types of connecting.

Prayer Advocates – People who pray specifically for us and the work.

I think your prayer advocates can and should be from all over the world. I get email newsletters from several workers that have to print their prayer requests in three different languages. Pretty cool.

I think it is E.M. Bounds who says that “prayer is the work”.

We need people to pray for us personally and our work. I know that seems like an obvious statement but sometimes I need the reminder.

Looking back nearly 8 years ago I still vividly remember needing a reminder of this the third week on the field. Why it took three weeks I do not know but I still remember that I was on the bus going to language school in Madrid and I was overwhelmed by several thoughts. On one hand I could not believe we were finally here. Then it hit me that I did not know anyone here. I cannot speak the language. I could barely order a cup of coffee. The list could go on. But then it struck me that I had to have a total dependence on the Lord. I could not do this on my own.

I think it was then where I took seriously the need to have people pray for us on a regular basis. To pray for us personally, our language needs, our friends, ministry, etc..

I started seeing God open up doors for us in some unbelievable ways.

I am convinced it was not through my own abilities. It was from prayer.

For the Worker: How do you communicate your prayer needs to your friends, family, your church and others? Do you use social networking to create prayer advocacy? I am curious?

For the church: How are you praying for global missions? What does that look like for your church? Curious about that also.

As We Go,

Larry

The Sending Church: Ways missionaries can minister to thier Church

2009-07-27T15:35:00.008+02:00

A couple of posts ago I talked about how the church can minister to the missionary. What about the other way. How can the missionary minister to the church?

Here’s my short list. I will say in advance I may have left something off so feel free to post comments to help this list be complete.

1. Offer to pray for them as you send out your monthly updates. My friend Paul Cox does every time he sends out a newsletter and he prays for them. He does a great job of this and taught me the importance of it. Check out his blog .

2. Make sure you try to connect with them on a regular basis. Just as I mentioned that it is good for the church to contact us on the field we need to do likewise. I should also add that we need to talk to them even when we do not need to ask them fro something. I can be guilty of talking / writing only when I need something. Oops.

3. Offer to speak at their church services when you are in the states BUT also I have found the small stuff is great. I love speaking to the small groups or gatherings. If you do get the opportunity to speak in the larger gathering then ask how long you have to communicate and stick to that time or even less. Do not be surprised in this day of multi media and a minute by minute program schedule that you may just get 2 – 3 minutes in the Sunday service gathering. How do you communicate your message in that amount of time ?

You can also do this while you are on the field from time to time. With the ability to do skype video / audio calls you can actually talk from you where you are at anytime.

4. When you are back home at the church serve along side them in their efforts of ministry. This goes back to the idea of instead of normally asking for stuff how about asking where you can serve them while on stateside? Maybe in an area totally unrelated to missions or maybe serving in a local mission effort. My wife and daughter taught Spanish classes for adults and this served as a great way to help Short Term teams be better prepared for their trips. I volunteered to be a substitute bible teacher for their small groups since my Spanish is not so good. smile.

5. Help them learn about your people group stateside. How can they minister to that people group stateside? I have found that inside my sending church there are simply some that have a passion for the people group I feel called to and others do not as much. I simply try to develop those who do have that desire to connect more and then I start developing that tribe of people. They are the ones that could have a desire to see how they can minister in their own community with a people group. They also may decide to host what we call reverse mission trips.

6. Make available some opportunities to have people from the church to come and see your area of ministry. Offer to have friends and / or groups in your church to come over and serve alongside of you. As you put together your strategy to reach people in your overseas setting and starting churches among them also consider ways that your sending church can be strategically involved with you. I find that the people from our sending church who have come over to serve for a week or so not only help us out in some tremendous ways but they also return to the states with an expanded worldview, heart for our people group and processing how this can look in their own community. win, win, win

7. Provide training and preparation for the groups the church may send to your area. If you do have a church that sends teams or groups over to work then make sure you do all you can to make the trip go smoothly in terms of logistics and meaningful in terms of ministry but this takes a lot of prayer, preparation and follow through.

There has to be more of these!
Please Share!

More on The Sending Church - Life on the field

2009-07-23T18:10:00.002+02:00

A few posts ago I wrote about the “Sending Church”. I have some more thoughts that I want to put out there.

I believe the sending church can and should play a vital role in the spiritual and emotional life of the missionary by giving pastoral care and support even while on the field. The sending church should not assume that these needs are met while they are on the field. While many missionaries are from sending organizations and these organizations often have quality member care services I think the missionary’s sending church can also minister in some amazing ways even when they are 1000’s of miles a part. However, it takes effort to keep the relationship at that level. I believe consistent and meaningful contact with the missionary is vitally important.

Consistent and Meaningful Contact – I know many of us on the field try to write newsletters, blogs, emails, etc.. to let our prayer advocates know how to better pray for us and what are needs are. However, the church does not need to wait on the missionary to write their monthly newsletter in order to have conversation with them. It means so much to the missionary to just get a contact from the sending church even if it is just say “hello and that we are praying for you” or “how can we help you or your family?” “How are your children doing?” “What is the Lord teaching you right now? Etc…

How is this best done?

Is it better for a church to have a designated point person for contact and needs?

What if the sending church has no strategic involvement in the missionary? What should the church’s role be if this is the case?

Longevity - One problem that I hear from missionaries is that often that the longer one is on the field the less the contact from the local church. I would agree. We have been on the field since 2001. I can tell a difference over the years. Does it mean that they do not care? No! There are many variables including some on our end. I think the longer you are on the field the more intentional the worker has to become in cultivating those relationships.

When you are first sent out it is a new thing for the church and much excitement exists but what happens after 3, 5, 7, 10 years or more?

Obviously many missionaries choose to go with a mission sending organization. These organizations can help assist the local church but the local church should not simply hand over the missionary and feel like their job is done. The Great Commission was given to the church and not an organization. The sending church has great responsibility when they send someone out.

How are you doing with the ones “sent” from your church?

Next – my list on how we as missionaries can give back to our church!

Also - Check out www.edstetzer.com and the conversation today about our vision trip to Asia.

Giving Care to Missionaries - Partnership Series

2009-07-20T12:53:00.004+02:00

Several years ago when I was putting together a paper at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School I heard one of the mission professors read this verse.

3 John 5 and 6
Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God.

I was a church planter in the states at the time and this verse really spoke to me. I think I immediately took it and made sure our sponsoring church saw the verses. grin. Seriously, it actually inspired me for my major project called: More Than Money! It was about how sponsoring churches can support their church planters in more ways than just giving them money.

Now after nearly 8 years overseas the verse still has great meaning for me. I am very grateful to the people and churches who enable our family to live and minister in another country. We could not do it without their financial support.

Someone sent me this link last month. I think it is pretty cool.
Take a look. It is from Desiring God Ministries.

As I continue this series on “mission partnerships” I hope you will perhaps show this to your church, small group, etc… and find some creative ways to bless missionaries.

As We Go,

Larry

Friday is for....

2009-07-17T13:13:00.006+02:00

I will be coming to the states during August and we are excited about these opportunities with The Upstream Collective. If you are in these cities I hope you can check them out if intereste

So, I guess Friday is for talking about a few upcoming events that I am involved in.

August 17, Springfield, Missouri- About Europe Meeting

August 27th, Nashville, Tennessee - About Europe Meeting

The goal of our About Europe Meeting is to see missional churches engaging people in Europe in redemptive relationships.

We think that the Great Commission belongs to the church. Your leadership, service, gifting, and creativity make you perfectly qualified for innovative approaches to sharing life with people from around the world. You strive toward incarnation of the gospel in your local community. You need to be doing that same sort of missional engagement globally.

Europe is the perfect place to connect with people from all over the world, from postmodern Europeans to Muslim immigrants to African refugees. Post-Christian Europe isn’t just a vital mission field; your interaction will give you insight into the coming American reality

If you are in these areas and interested in this conference send me an email at larry@theupstreamcollective.org

August 28th and 29th - Atlanta, Georgia

GO Conference (click here to learn more about the conference and contact details if interested in attending) sponsored with Marketplace Intiatives and SkyBridge Community.

We invite you to join Marketplace Initiatives at a gathering beginning at 5:00 PM on Friday, August 28 and lasting until 4:00 PM on Saturday, August 29. This gathering will seek to explore how God might use individuals’ and corporations’ marketplace activities to expand His Kingdom. A select group of friends will come together to learn and discuss the potential for ministries through the marketplace in Europe, North Africa, and Turkey. Since the group will be small, there will be plenty of opportunities to interact, contribute, ask questions, explore possibilities, and learn from each other.

Several leaders with successful experience in cross-cultural work and ministry through the marketplace will facilitate this gathering and share lessons they have learned about:

• Business as Mission and/or tentmaking in real life
• The balance work and ministry and how to do what it takes to succeed at both
• How God can use you to make the greatest impact
• How to take the next steps

August 31st - Birmingham, Alabama - The Church As Missionary Roundtable with the Developing Church Network. Register here . Join us with our friends from DCN for a day of conversations about how the church can connect globally and some practical steps in making that happen.

We would love to see you at one of these events.

As We Go,

Larry

Who and Where?

2009-07-16T13:43:00.004+02:00

I have been in a meeting talking with a lot of people who work throughout Europe. But as I talked with these men and women who have left their homeland to come overseas to tell others about Christ I am reminded of how many of these same peoples we are trying to reach in Europe also live in the United States.

Icelanders in Minnesota
Norwegians in Wisconsin
The Basque in Idaho
Russians in Tennessee
The Polish in Chicago
Italians in New York City
Bulgarians in Orlando
Germans in Texas

Obviously this is an non-exhaustive list for European who live in the states.

I could move beyond Europe to other parts of the world:
Asia
Africa
Australia
India
South America

You can find most of the people groups in the world some where in the USA.

Who lives in your community?

Who attends your church?

How can this shape your church's future mission partnerships?

How can these questions shape your missional initiatives in your community and in your world?

The Great Commission is not a “either / or” proposition. It is a “both / and” Command. It is both in your own community and throughout the world.

Acts 1:8

Let’s Go!

mulit-site house church - video venue

2009-07-12T12:21:00.005+02:00

I was looking the other day for a new theme for my blog and ran across this ad for home entertainment centers.

It reminded me of how I saw a really interesting house (someone lives in this) in Northern Italy.

Then I thought about the inside design.
Would this be what a multi - site house church with a video venue might look like ?

Just having fun!

Partnerships - The Sending Church

2009-07-09T11:06:00.005+02:00

What is the difference between a "sending church" and a church that is in "partnership" with a missionary or cross cultural church planting team? Do you believe there is a difference?

I truly believe that every cross cultural worker needs to be “sent” from a church. I believe one’s calling into cross cultural missions needs to be in community and not simply an individual's calling. I believe often the calling starts in a person’s heart but it needs to be shared, prayed through and confirmed within a community of believers.

I really believe this is the model we see in Acts 13.
I found this from Urbana 81 by Gordan MacDonald.

There are many churches; there are relatively few sending churches. Let me define a sending church. We can do it by way of a historical model, the church in Acts 13 in which the Holy Spirit was free to speak because he would be heard. That church called Saul and Barnabas and sent them out to the uttermost parts of the earth. That was a sending church. It was a church marked by intercession for world evangelization, marked with caring for the needs of hurting people, marked with a hunger for the teaching of the Word of God. It was a church marked with leaders who really believed the mandate of Acts 1:8. Into that sort of atmosphere the Holy Spirit can quickly move. So when he said, "Set apart these men," the church laid hands on them and "sent them off' (v. 3). It was a sending church.

Here are a few thoughts I have had over the years of church planting, pastoring and being a cross cultural worker in regards to "sending" churches.

• They confirm the giftings and calling of the missionary and family if married.

• They find ways to prepare and equip the missionary to go out.

• They pray over the missionary and send them out. In Acts 13 you see the “laying on of hands”. I think this came once they knew the Holy Spirit was sending them and they confirmed this calling and blessed them.

• The sending church maintains contact with the missionary while on the field even once the new wears off. (I found a great link for this and will try to post tomorrow)

• The sending church should hold the missionary accountable while on the field. I believe this accountability deals with the spiritual, character and strategic aspects of the missionary.

• The sending church financially supports the worker as needed. I say this for I believe there are some missionaries who do not need the financial support or as much financial support from the church for they work in jobs in these countries. They do still need these other aspects of support.
Check out Skybridge Community or Marketplace Intiatives if you want more context about "tentmaking" or "Doing Business As Missions".

• They find ways that they can be involved in the work and strategic ministry of the missionary. I think as a church sends out a missionary that they are also committing to supporting the ministry in which they are going to serve. One way that I think this can work is when churches build their mission's strategy around the people whom God has called to missionary service. This may not always be a possibility but I think it can work. This facilitates long term involvement with the missionary team that is sent out and meaningful mission's involvement for the church.

For example if a church has a couple / individual coming overseas to serve as church planters what are some other ways their church can engage in the city? Obviosuly prayer should be a given.

Could international business people from the church look to come to that city to take a job with thier company?
Could a football or basketball player from the church try out for a professional team in Europe and play a sport?
Could the church rent an apartment in the city and send short term workers for three months at a time?
What about the international business people from the church who may make trips to that city? How can they be strategically used to think missionally while doing business abroad?
What about college students from their church looking to study abroad? Could they study in that city?

The list can go on and on. You are more creative than I.
Just sending one person or family could be the beginning.
A couple of opportunities for conversation:

If the missionaries are being sent through a mission agency strategy conversations need to take place regarding who makes strategic decisions once on the field.

As time goes on for the people that were sent on the field conversations need to continually be revisited in case there is a change of ministry in the life of the missionary or if the church chooses to go another strategic direction in their missions. What happens if the church and the missionary have differing strategies? What gives?

LifePointe Church in Smyrna (near Nashville, Tennessee) and The Upstream Collective will be putting together a "Sending Church" conference early in 2010. I will keep you updated on the dates and info on that as we plan.

More soon.

Art Gallery Advocacy

2009-07-06T13:23:00.004+02:00

One challenge we have on the mission field is how do we personalize our ministry to our supporters back home?

I must admit that I do not like to stand at a booth in a mission fair. This may be disappointing to you I know. I know some people love that sort of thing and that is great. Many churches these days do not have mission fairs or expos or whatever the latest title may be but yet they are involved in mission partnerships. What are some ways we can personalize missions with churches that do not have mission expos?

I heard of this idea the other day while in Athens. This group used the idea to personalize their missions as well as promote prayer advocacy and partnerships with North American churches. By the way the name of that ministry is PORTA and they have an outstanding work with an immigrant population in that city. Let me know if you want to contact them.

I think this can also be a great idea for churches who have partnerships with a city or people group. Here is the idea. Send a photographer to that city and have them take a bunch of shots of people and places in the selected city. (I am partial to Europe but it can be anywhere, smile)

Enlist a group of people in your church and community who know photography to choose the best 40 - 50 pictures and have them printed. Make large prints of the photos and prepare them for display like an art gallery. I am sure Fed Ex Kinkos or other places can take care of this for a price.

Find a space in your community and invite people to come to look at the photos. Have a local coffee shop cater the event. Have people who have been to that city on mission trips invite their family and friends.

I think this would be a great way to share about your experiences, create advocacy for that people group and pray for the people in that city. It is a great way to personalize your mission partnership.
This idea can be adapted in about 500 different ways I would imagine.

Any takers?

in Madrid - Partnership

2009-07-01T07:28:00.005+02:00

This week I am helping out with an Upwards Basketball camp in Madrid. FBC Concord in Knoxville, Tennessee started these camps about four years ago. Since we used to live here we are having a blast seeing our friends from our old neighborhood. Our kids are helping in the camp this year along with Susan and I. I "try" to help the 13 - 16 year old boys group and my wife helps in the ESL part of the camp. I have forgotten just how hot Madrid is in the summer time. Whew!

Some cool things about the "hot" camp and the partnership with this church.

They now have over 100 kids and they do not publicize the camp. Friends invite friends.
The church that started the camp in 2005 is still coming back each year? Yea, FBC Concord.
Repeat trips makes a difference. Several of the camp staff have been here serving 5 times or more since our partnership began in 2002. The children at the camp know many of the camp staff by name.
The partnership has been to Madrid and not to a worker. Once we moved to Germany the church still comes here to work.
The church often brings entire families to come and work the camps. It is a great experience for the children that come with their families to serve.

More soon on partnerships. I got to go to Camp!

Larry visits Mars Hill

2009-06-20T07:46:00.005+02:00

Yesterday we went into Athens to see the sites. We made it to Mar's Hill. I will tell you about a really cool ministry connect we made there in my next post.

The book of Acts comes alive here as you walk around the marketplace, the temple sites, Mar's Hill.

I am standing next to his speech as recorded in Acts 17. I giving you the English version in case you cannot zoom in and read it in Greek.

²²Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

I must say when you come to Athens you must try the "Frappe". I doubt the Apostle Paul was able to experience this aspect of Athenian life but the"iced coffee drink" is something to remember.

More Soon.

In Athens

2009-06-19T07:42:00.003+02:00

We arrived last night in Athens. We flew in from Zurich to Madrid and then on to Athens. We had a long layover in Madrid so we took the metro into the city to get a cafe con leche (coffee) and some lunch. It felt good to be back in Madrid even if it were only for a few hours this time.

We flew out of Madrid and arrived late in Athens.
We are going to spend the next couple of days being tourists in Athens. We are grateful for staying at the home of some people who are doing "Business as Mission" with Greater Europe Mission.

More soon.

Partnerships

2009-06-16T15:13:00.002+02:00

I think we see the importance of “partnership” with the apostle Paul to the church at Philippi. No blog post on partnerships would be complete without these verses:

3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. Phil 1:3 – 8

Some quick bullet points on these verses that always impress me.

• Paul is thankful to the Lord for that church.
• Paul is thankful because they have continually “partnered” with him in the good times and bad.
• Paul knows that their partnership is also growing them as a church and God’s grace is being shared.
• Paul has a deep affection for this church.

Some questions that jump out at me?

Was the church at Phillipi his “sending” church? What is the difference between a “sending” church and a “partnering” church?

In what ways did they partner with him?

In what ways did he partner with them?

Did they have a formal written agreement?

Did they pray for him?

Did they give of their resources to him?

Did they send out people from their church to help him?

How could they know his prayer request without “twitter” or “facebook” in those days? Grin.

More soon.
lmc

Partnerships

2009-06-12T09:25:00.002+02:00

I am going to finally start my partnership series. I know you just cannot wait. Smile.

I feel that "partnership" needs a definition. It is a well used term. It may not be used as much as "missional" but I do hear "I want to partner with you" quite a lot.

What does “partnership” mean?

Is it like saying – “hello, how are you doing?”

When someone asks me that question do they really want to hear how I am doing? Do they really want me to stop and tell them if it is anything more than – “I am fine”.

That is the trouble with overused terms or phrases. They can lose their meaning.

So a quick google search on the word “partnership” and here is what I found.

A Partnership -

* the members of a business venture created by contract

* a cooperative relationship between people or groups who agree to share responsibility for achieving some specific goal; "effective language learning is a partnership between school, teacher and student"; "the action teams worked in partnership with the government"

* a contract between two or more persons who agree to pool talent and money and share profits or losses
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

In missions how do we use the word “partnership”?
What do we really mean?

What does this mean coming from missionaries or mission organizations?

What do churches and organizations who want to partner with the field mean when they say “we want to partner” with you?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Vision Trip - the final edition

2009-05-25T07:36:00.005+02:00

Vision Trip to Rome and Marseille

This past weekend I returned home here in Germany after Upstream's vision trip.
We had a great week. Learned a lot. It was really cool to be around a group of pastors and mission leaders who are serious about keeping "missions" in "missional". It is encouraging to listen to people who want to connect globally as well as in their own communities.

I need to say some thank you's for I am very grateful for the help on this trip.

A thank you to Ed Stetzer who came a long with us. He is a good friend and I always learn much when I get to hang out with him some.

I also have to say thanks to Caleb Crider who really did an outstanding job on this trip with his talks about missions and posting on our blog.

I want to thank Scott and his team in Marseille and Jason and his team in Rome for hosting us and making us feel welcome and giving us a great glimpse of these two cities.

We had a great group of people who came along for the journey.
Check out this blog and some cool videos here.

Next on the stop is Asia in September. It looks like we will be going to Taiwan.
We will be in London and Paris next May 2010.

If you have an interest in either trip fill out the application form at our website .
You can also sign up for our free e-newsletter to get a glimpse on future events or trips.

Go Conference

When I returned home I spoke via skype at the Go Conference hosted by Greater Europe Mission. Check out this blog. We are looking into co-sponsoring one of these in the Southeast this August as we search for people who want to live and work in Europe, on Purpose .

Next Up
I am continuing to formulate some thoughts on partnerships. Thanks for those of you who have sent me some information and material on the subjects of mission partnerships.

In Rome

2009-05-24T08:33:00.002+02:00

Our Upstream Collective vision trip began last night. We had our first gathering last night at a local café and got to know each other a bit. We come from diverse background but connected in that we all want to see the church involved in missions. Several conversations that I had revolved around how we feel the Great Commission was given to the church. What does this look like in a day where it is so east to pay organizations and networks to do it? How can the church fully express itself in the Great Commission.

This morning we are headed to St. Paul’s here in Rome. It is the second largest church. We will have more conversations and lots of café. Have I mentioned that the café here is great.

I am going to talk this morning about being “invited” in. I will look at the story of Phillip as he went up to the Chariot as the Spirit led him on the road out of the city. As he obeyed the Spirit the Ethopian official invited him in. We see this again with Paul as he was in Athens. I will actually be in that city next month but that is another post. Paul was in three spaces as Erwin McManus says. He first went to the religious place where there were God fearers present and he engaged in conversation with. As often the case he would work in the marketplace for he was a tent maker and the marketplace was his second place. I believe as Paul was in this second place it gave him opportunity to be invited into the “third space”. He was invited into the group to be able to explain these things that he believed in.

Ministry in Europe today is a lot like that I think. We have to live amongst the people here. We pray for opportunities to join them. We seek to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. We hope to be invited into their spaces. It is then when we have awesome opportunities to share Jesus and see people’s lives changed.

More later,

Larry

Doing Business With Mission

2009-05-21T10:37:00.006+02:00

This past week has been real exciting for me regarding an area that I am quite passionate about; "Doing Business with Mission".

First, I was extremely encouraged by some potential opportunities for people to either move to Bulgaria to work or even start a company or do an internship. Some of the business people there who are followers of Jesus are really desiring to see people come over and work in the marketplace. If you are interested email me at larry@theupstreamcollective.org

Take a look at a video we shot in Bulgaria. Click Here!

Second, we have had several new members for our Skybridge Community. We typically have people who are either looking for a job in Europe, already working in Europe or with a church who is interesting in sending this type of worker to the field. Our community is growing!

Third, two of our people who have been seeking jobs in Europe found places of employment. I think I mentioned this before but hopefully my repetition will simply emphasize my enthusiasm for them.

New Article Out
I wrote an article for Paul Cox who works with OMS International this week. He will be posting it on his blog over the next several days. Take a look. The article is for people who are going on short term trips and is about "Items that you need to be sure to pack on your trip".

The Week

2009-05-19T10:18:00.008+02:00

About Sofia, Bulgaria
What a city of opportunity. I hope some people will read this and begin to pray about getting involved here. I think something great is going to happen here spiritually. Here are three things that you can do:

1. If you would like to connect with a missionary in Sofia please let me know by sending me an email. We have several teams that we are working with both with the imb and Greater Europe Mission They need prayer support. They need some strong partnerships to help them plant churches and they need churches that will send business people to come there and work.

2. We talked with several people who think that finding business internships in Sofia would be a possible way to connect here. We talked with one business guy who thinks they can bring a new person on. If you want to live and work in Europe, on purpose then check out www.skybridgecommunity.net and drop me a note.

3. I have been working with John and the Business as Mission group at Greater Europe Mission. They have an event coming up called GO MARKET GATHERING on May 29 and 30th to help people discover more about this idea of business as mission. I will be doing a Skype interview from Germany as a part of the conference. If you can get to the Colorado Springs area I think it would be worth checking out. Click here for the link.

The Upstream Collective Vision Trip
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ed Stetzer. Okay maybe that was an overstatement (smile) but we are excited about him being a part of this trip next week. I really appreciate his passion to see the nations come to Christ. We read much about his conversations of missions and church planting in North America but he also has quite a heart for the world. Thanks Ed!

Our trip will begin in Rome and end up in Marseille. Our guides who will be leading us through these cities are quite awesome and have some great venues in store for us. We will be doing Jet Set blog updates so be sure to follow.

If you are interested in coming on one in the future check out our site at www.theupstreamcollective.org .

Confused - Let your "Yes" be "No" and Your "No" be "Yes"

2009-05-15T08:05:00.006+02:00

I told you yesterday that I am in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is my first visit here. I really like being here. Very interesting culture. I like the people here. The coffee is also good!. On the plane from Germany to Bulgaria I sat next to a guy who lives in Minnesota. He is from Bulgaria. He has lived in the States for almost 8 years. He has lived in Atlanta, New Jersey, New York City and Orlando. He now lives in Minnesota. He likes the opportunity to work in the states though he misses home and family. He did not know one word of English before he arrived 8 years ago (I know how he feels). He was coming back to his home for the first time in 2 years.

We were able to talk about many things. I was reading the book "Re-Jesus" by Alan Hirsch so we had a really good spiritual conversation. He comes from a Bulgarian Orthodox background but is not connected to a church now. He wrote down a few words for me in Bulgarian and I still cannot pronounce them. I am not really a linguistic expert. smile. He also gave me an interesting tid-bit. He said that to shake you head like we Americans shake when we say "no" means "yes" and if you shake your head like you are shaking "yes" it can be "no." I needed to try this out. You have many opportunities to shake your head when travelling. So I did not have to be real intentional about it. When you are asked something you usually go with a natural response.

Yes, I want a coffee.
No, I do not want to buy that. etc..
I also found that you rather naturally shake your head or use non-verbal gestures.

We had some Gypsies who were asking for money near our hotel. We see them each time we go out the door. They were following us all the way down the street. Then it occurred to me as I was shaking my head "no" that they may be thinking I was saying "yes". So I found out that I needed to watch that and reverse my thinking and my gestures. It works much better this way. Understanding your culture is important. I have much to learn here.

Changing topics

Skybridge - You know one of the initiative that I am involved in with The Upstream Collective is something called The Skybridge Community. It is where we want to see people come to Europe and work in the marketplace and live out their lives missionally here in these cities. We have people who are part of this community who are already working here. We also have some who are trying to get jobs or opportunities to be here in business, internships or Study Abroad programs. What has been really cool this week is that two of the people who have been looking for work here in Europe found jobs this week. Yea God!!

In my next post I will talk about some opportunities here in Sofia. They could really use some churches to sense a calling to work here. I also sense that this could be a good city to work in as a business professional and also make a huge impact as a follower of Jesus. Let me know at larry@theupstreamcollective.org if you want more information.

Sofia, Bulgaria

2009-05-14T06:58:00.003+02:00

I am in Sofia today. It is quite an interesting city.
We are staying downtown. As we were walking around some last night I was able to see this statue of Sofia. There is one place in the city where you can literally see a Jewish Synagogue, a Mosque, an Orthodox church and a Roman Catholic church.

Today we have several meetings with people as we talk about doing business as mission. I am working with some International Mission Board workers here, some Greater Europe Mission workers and some local church leaders. I love collaboration. I think it is good when we can work together for the same purpose.

I learned an interesting culture tid-bit yesterday. I need to try it out today before I blog about it. Maybe tomorrow. ALSO - You know if you read my blogs that I love coffee. I have been quite impressed so far. The hotel where we are staying has possibly the best coffee for a hotel that I have tasted in a while. Of course for me that translates to be a strong cup of coffee.

More soon.

The Chat Project in Spain

2009-05-13T12:02:00.001+02:00

You have got to check out this really cool work that is going on in Spain. These are some really good friends that we have known for several years. Please remember them as they work there but also it is a great opportunity to connect with and work along side of them.

The Chat Project ...
is a program that connects people around the world through intercultural exchanges. We are based out of beautiful San Sebastián, Spain, and working through a non-profit foundation that serves our area by providing quality English conversation with NATIVE English speakers.

The idea...
was developed over several years, beginning with the desire to be a contributing, valued part of the international community in order to have a voice in the global conversation. We are Christians intentionally engaging people in conversation, cultural events, concerts, exchange programs, and sharing the transformational truth we have experienced in Jesus. We love God, we love people, and we love to TALK!!!

The details...
We believe in the principle of “doing unto others” and have developed a program that treats people and language learners like we would LOVE to be treated. In our years of living overseas, we know what it is like to learn a second and third foreign language. Having time to practice with patient, native speakers is the ONLY way to improve your verbal proficiency. So, knowing that ENGLISH is the global language, we wanted to give Europeans, and especially those in the beautiful BASQUE region of SPAIN, the opportunity to do just that - practice with patient, native English Speakers whenever they want at our English Lounge.

But it gets even BETTER!!!
The other side of the program lets us “do unto others” for our US volunteers and partners. So many people want to be a part of the global community and share the love God has put in their hearts for the world. The CHAT Project provides the opportunity for all our volunteer partners to connect with internationals in meaningful ways even on short-term trips. In addition to 1 or 2 week volunteer trips with groups (English speaking travelers) who help us with special events and English immersion weekends, we rely on semester and year long volunteers to supplement our career staff. Our longer term volunteers have the opportunity to learn Spanish or Basque in the mornings and serve our community with The Chat Project in the afternoon.

If you want to learn more about this check out their site and get in touch with them here.

Stay

2009-05-11T08:00:00.001+02:00

One can see in the book of Acts how the Holy Spirit leads

Sometimes the Spirit says GO

• Phillip’s trek down the southern road that led him to the Ethiopian official.
Sometimes the Spirit says NO

• Paul as he is trying to go into Asia. Two times he was stopped by the Spirit but then redirected to Macedonia.

Sometimes the Spirit says STAY

• Paul as he has the vision and stays in Corinth teaching and growing the church there.

I am convinced as I study the book of Acts that it is so vitally important for me to be connected to God and able to move at the Spirit’s direction and leading. I think this is true for individuals but I also think it is true for the church. I think that as we take part in the Great Commission that it is not to be done outside the context of a spiritual community. As we search scriptures and listen to God in prayer I believe this will be confirmed in the counsel of our believers in our church.

Speak Out!

2009-05-08T13:13:00.001+02:00

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.
Acts 18:9-11

Impressions, Visions, Stirrings, Leadings
All of these words are used as we describe how the Holy Spirit speaks to us.
I am often reminded of Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God and I am forever grateful for his teaching.

He talks about how we can determine God’s will. Do you remember those?
Through scripture
Through prayer
Through experiences/circumstances
and through the counsel of friends.

I know myself that I sometimes go for the quick fix and seek counsel of others or my circumstances to determine the direction of the Lord. But I believe that as we consistently seek the Lord though prayer and the scriptures that we will understand his will for us. I believe this applies to all areas of our life.

In this case its seems that Paul needed a word from the Lord about his preaching and teaching there in Corinth. He needed reassurance. He needed a shot of boldness. This vision that Paul had here evidently led him to stay for some time to teach in this new church.

The role of the Holy Spirit in mission strategy

2009-05-06T16:22:00.003+02:00

Still thinking about the role of the Holy Spirit in our mission endeavors.

I was going over some notes from our Church as Missionary workbook that Caleb Crider and I use. It is a compilation of mission writings and notes that we continually put together. We teach it when someone asks for it. Some times we may teach it even if not asked. Smile. One thing that I came across that got my attention this morning is this question.

How do we determine missions strategy?

Traditionally, missions strategy has gone something like this:

• Where are the greatest concentrations of “unreached people groups?”
• The next largest town with no evangelical witness.
• Areas of concentrated lostness.
• Areas with highest level of need.
• Inﬂuential people and/or places.

Personally, I know these are well meaning conclusions. I think the issue that I struggle with is how much can we really know about these things? How much do we rely on our statistics to guide our strategy? I think we can work real hard on getting this information as accurate as possible, however in the end these are questions that only our Lord knows the answers.

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in our mission strategy?

What if the Lord directs us to go somewhere that on paper does not look as strategic as where we have researched and determined as the new hotspot or the place of greatest need.

It has been my experience that my pragmatism gets in the way of listening to God and responding to Him. I want to go where I can be most effective. I want to go where there is GREAT need. I get motivated by “needs” but the problem I have found is that there is always a place that has a greater need. What happens when God’s plan is different?

I like what Caleb says here: “If we allow Him to guide our missions efforts, weʼll ﬁnd that He is actively orchestrating His work around the world”.

Read again what happened to Paul in Acts 16:6 - 10

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

When God says "No"

2009-05-04T19:26:00.003+02:00

What do you do when the Holy Spirit says “no”?

Does a “no” put you in a tailspin?

What happens when the plans you made do not turn out that way due to the fact the Lord closes a door?

What happens when the Lord puts the brakes on our strategy plan?

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:6-10

I do not like “no” for an answer.
Do you think Paul liked the “no” ?
It seems that he got his first “No” and the Holy Spirit stopped him.
Then he tried another area and the same response – No!
Once again, stopped!

What do you do?

In Paul’s case they went yet another direction and then he had the vision of the man from Macedonia. It evidently made an impact. He knew it was the Lord directing him. Then he did as so many of the men of faith did in the Bible – He obeyed… immediately.
They left for Macedonia.

How do you handle the redirections?

The role of the Church in Missions

2009-04-30T10:07:00.002+02:00

I am still thinking of some questions regarding Acts 13 and being “sent”. So this is a question blog. I am fortunate and grateful in that I come from a strong mission sending church.

When I think about my own “sent ness” I sometimes wonder what role the church played in it?
It seems the Church and the Holy Spirit both played vital roles in the "sending".

Before I was SENT

Did they confirm my calling or did an organization? or both?

How did this confirmation take place?

Was it filling out forms, references, affirming my calling through my actions in the context of the local church?

Did they confirm my giftedness? If so, how?

Did they lay hands on me, pray for me and send me out as their missionaries?

Once on the FIELD

How do we continue to communicate? Is it one way communication or do both the missionary and the sending church initiate conversation?

Do I send them regular prayer updates?

Am I able to speak into their mission efforts back “home”?

How can I serve my sending church?

Do they hold me and my family accountable spiritually?

Do they give us pastoral care even while on the field? If so what does this look like?

How do they relate to us strategically?

Who takes the lead in the mission strategy?

The church?
A mission organization?
A missionary team that is sent out?
All three?

What happens when the missionary’s calling and the church’s strategy no longer match? What gives?

Obviously I believe that the Great Commission belongs to the local church. I believe as Acts 13 speaks of that the local church is central to our missionary efforts. How can the local church fully participate overseas?

I would love to read your comments or perhaps you have even better questions.
As I put together my next series on "missional partnerships" I will attempt to answer some of these questions.

Mondays are for ...

2009-04-27T10:38:00.004+02:00

Mondays are for a Bunch of STUFF.

Everyone seems to have a once a week type deal on their blog so why not me?
Here are some things that I am working on and I would love your input.

New Blog Series
I will soon be finishing the series entitled "LED".

I am working on a new blog series about "partnerships" for churches in North America with Church Planters and/or missionaries internationally? As you may know I spend a lot of time working with churches of various denominations in North America and helping them to connect internationally. I have a compiled a list of trends that I am seeing with churches in North America regarding international missions. I think they are quite positive. I am going to be teaching on this tomorrow in Germany at a training event for some strategists. I will let you know how it goes. I need to make some tweaks on it and then I will post on it.

BUT, I am also wanting to know from churches what you consider to be good partnership principles ? What do you need from your partnerships? How can missionaries help you and your church? This can really help teams on the field know how to better relate with you, our partners. The Great Commission belongs to the church. How can I help you on that journey? If you have some thoughts on this please email me at larry@theupstreamcollective.org or simply make a comment on this blog.

Upstream Vision Trips
We have opened up registration for two upcoming Vision trips. You can pre-register online.
Space is limited on these trips.

Asia - September 19th - 27th, 2009 with Ed Stetzer.

London and Paris - May 21- 30th, 2010 with Ed Stetzer and Daniel Montgomery who is the pastor of Sojourn Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Led .. Acts 13

2009-04-25T11:11:00.004+02:00

Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon (called “the black man”[a]), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas[b]), and Saul. 2 One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” 3 So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.

I continue to be fixated on Acts 13. I am also thinking of other places in the New Testament where it talks about giftedness. Romans 12, 1 Cor.12, Ephesians 4 just to name a few.

What is the purpose of spiritual gifts?

We see in scripture it is to build up the body of Christ. It is not to showcase our own talents and abilities.

A body is organic.
It is growing.
It is alive.
It is reproducing.
It is maturing.

All of these descriptions of the body can play a part in the church’s mission(al) activity. In Acts 13 we see some believers with identifiable gifts. There were prophets and teachers. So having gifts and those gifts being affirmed was an important part of the church and still is today.

I believe as the church matures and reproduces it should be able to identify, affirm, equip and send out those in the body for ministry in their community and in to the world.

I like this pattern in Acts 13. I think it shows how spiritual gifts come into play in missions and how the Holy Spirit calls people. It also shows how the church affirms that calling and sends people out. It all works together.

Just what is missional?

2009-04-23T18:41:00.000+02:00

I am sitting here at Exponential New Church conference. The buzz this year seems to be "missional". There are some good conversations going on around this.

One thing I believe is that we need to make sure "mission" is a part of missional. I think a lot of us are talking missional. We are working at how to engage our communities in an incarnational way but how often are we crossing the cultures within our communities and furthermore how are we ministering in other cultures in distant lands. A key part of being a follower of Jesus is being an active part of the Great Commission.

You can find some short video clips of this conversation from Ed Stetzer and Alan Hirsch from Upstream's dinner the other night here in Orlando. Check it out at our blog

More later.

Exponential Conference - Orlando

2009-04-21T13:39:00.005+02:00

I am in Orlando this week for the Exponential Church Planting Conference.
It is good to be here with all of these church planters. We (The Upstream Collective) hosted a dinner last night featuring Ed Stetzer and Alan Hirsch. We had a great time and just barely enough food. I kept having people wanting to come to the event. I just could not say no.

As I have been thinking about our event last night and various conversations that I have had since being here I am really excited to see new church plants thinking towards being involved globally from day one. As you know this is a lot of our passion that fuels the Upstream Collective. We see the church as missionary. It is a both / and proposition. It is both being involved locally and being involved globally. I think church plants have much to offer overseas. We want to help in that journey.

We have another dinner that we are hosting on Wednesday evening. It is a free dinner so if you are here and you want to come and join us stop by our booth and get a ticket. We will be talking about ways churches can be involved in church planting partnerships in Scandinavia. Or you can send me an email at larry@theupstreamcollective.org

Led.. The Antioch Church

2009-04-17T15:40:00.002+02:00

2 One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” 3 So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way. 4 So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. Acts 13: 2-4

I have often thought of God’s call on a person’s life. I think I have been guilty of thinking of “calling” or “being sent” as an individual’s response to God’s call on their life. When I read Acts 13 I see the church doing what was normal to them: worshiping the Lord and fasting. The Holy Spirit spoke to them and gave them an assignment.

You (the church) should dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the work in which I have called them do. This “leading” was to the church. It was in community. It seems that the church doing what was normal to them received instructions on how to be responsible to the Great Commission. They were to send out two of their very gifted men.

The church continued to pray and to fast on this matter and then they laid hands on them and sent them out.

I wonder what conversations did they have as a church during that time?

What conversations did they have with Barnabas and Saul while they were going through this process?

Did they have a church planter assessment done? (I had to write that since that was my job some years back.)

We do know is this was the first missionary journey of Paul. They were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They were confirmed by the body of believers known as the church. The two (Holy Spirit and Church ) should not be separated in our missionary ventures.

Led ... The Story of Phillip

2009-04-15T21:17:00.000+02:00

Perhaps one of the most concrete examples of being "led" comes from the Story of Phillip and the Ethiopian official.

26 As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south[b] down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”

30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. Acts 8:26-31

I love this story. I pray that my life will be as finely tuned as that.
Here we have a preacher who instead of being led to the city was led to go on a road away from town. I get this picture of a man walking (Phillip) and a man riding (The Ethiopian Official). So the Spirit tells Phillip “go walk beside the chariot”. Phillip must have been in shape enough to do it. I think my tendency would have been to go over and ask for a ride but the bible tells us that Phillip ran over there.

The story concludes with the Ethiopian coming to faith in Christ. I think the obedience that Phillip had in following the leadership of the Holy Spirit was crucial. The Spirit provided the opportunity for the gospel to be explained to this man in a way in which he could understand and ultimately accept.

There are two important points to this passage (I am sure there are more).

1. Being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading
2. Being obedient to the Holy Spirit once he leads

Phillip did both and we can learn from this.

How does this affect us as we live our lives missionally everyday?
How does this apply to a church in how it lives out the Great Commission?
How can this apply to mission organizations or church planting teams who sometimes have long-term strategy plans?

More soon.

Led... Continued

2009-04-13T12:01:00.002+02:00

I hope you had an super Resurrection Sunday yesterday.
It is now Easter Monday here in Europe so much of Europe is on holiday today. I hope your Monday is great wherever you happen to be reading this.

I want to pick back up on my LED series which is about the role of the Holy Spirit in missions.

I would miss a key aspect of the Holy Spirit and missions if I did not include this in my series.

5 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 6 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” Acts 7:55-56

Amidst intense pressure and imminent death Stephen did not run and take cover. He stood with boldness and power and he gave the Message. I do not think he did this on his own. I believe this was beyond his human competency. This was the power of the Holy Spirit as was promised in Acts 1:8. This was a demonstration that the Holy Spirit can give us boldness in our witness no matter what our circumstances.

Sometimes we need that boldness in a hostile crowd. Other times we need that same boldness as we talk to a friend or neighbor or family member that does not yet know Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives us boldness.

Sunday Morning

2009-04-12T12:01:00.000+02:00

Sunday is about the empty tomb.

What Jesus did on the cross was accomplished!
He conquered sin and the grave.
He is risen!

The Bible says it best:

¹After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

²There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

⁵The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

⁸So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

The Wait

2009-04-11T12:01:00.001+02:00

Two nights ago I took my son camping. Actually the truth be told our friends took us camping. I am so clueless about such matters. I did remember to bring food but forgot to bring anything to eat on or with. This is one such example.

Camping out to me is like flying across the Atlantic in coach class. I am not talking about the fireside time or eating. That is the fun part. The not so fun part is trying to sleep on the hard ground and in this case with five 13 year old boys. The ground is hard, you hear a lot of noises in the woods plus you hear boys trying to see who could make the loudest and grossest noises from their bodies.

I always enjoy the morning after a camp out.

This day was no different. It reminded me about a time when I was college student. I was participating in an outdoor wilderness adventure. We were on the Appalachian Trail for 10 days. We had to do a 24 hour solo experience. No food, No one around you and overnight in the mountains. I noticed at the spot they dropped me off at had a sign that read - Warning: bear sanctuary. That was a sign of comfort. NOT!

I figured the best way to get through the overnight part of this was to sleep through the night.
I found the safest and highest place. I settled in. It was dusk so I figured I would go to sleep and wake up at daybreak. No problems. Life is rarely that smooth for me. I was able to go to sleep without problems and I woke up and felt refreshed. Plus, it was bearly (no pun intended, smile) light. The problem was that instead of it getting lighter outside it was getting darker. I had taken a 20 minute nap. I could not go back to sleep. So the rest of the night was quite difficult. I longed for the daylight. I anticipated the morning where I could see what was around me. I kept reading the sign about the bears in my mind and I know I heard footsteps (it was probably a large squirrel)

This to me is Saturday after Good Friday. Waiting for Daylight and what comes in the morning.

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Lamentations 3:22 - 24

Amazing Love How Can It Be

2009-04-10T19:04:00.004+02:00

Good Friday.

Not a lot of extra words are needed today on my blog.
The bible speaks profoundly to us about today.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8

Today we remember what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.
It is indeed a Good Friday.

Thank You Lord for your sacrifice.
Thank you Lord for your amazing love.

Led

2009-04-08T14:02:00.004+02:00

I decided to make a series out of "Led". I hope you enjoy it. It is really about some things I have observed in the scriptures regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in missions. So here we go.

I have always been intrigued by how early the early church had an “issue”.

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. Acts 6:1

A solution was found

So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. Acts 6:2

The early church leaders needed to find other capable men to help in the ministry.
Look at the criteria they chose.

And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Acts 6:3,4

Well Respected
Full of the Holy Spirit
Wise

I heard long ago about the Four C’s on bringing on a team member. I have long sense forgotten who came up with this. Please accept my apologies. I know it was not I.
I am not that “C”reative.

I have used this before with Psalm 78:70-72

Their Character
Their Calling – A sense of “oughtnes”
Their Competency – Their abilities to get the job done

And if these “C”s check out then

The Chemistry they have with our team. Are they a good fit?

Here is a mistake that we often make. We want to know all about their competency and calling. Some organizations/churches place a huge emphasis on callings while others place a huge emphasis on their competency. BUT, it is in their Character where we see again the role the Holy Spirit plays in their life. Does the Spirit lead them? Do they exhibit the qualities of life in the Spirit resulting in the fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:16-24?

I need to add an outcome after this situation was resolved.

So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too. Acts 6:7

Europartners

2009-04-05T08:33:00.003+02:00

Recently I met with Dominique Faessler who is the President of Europartners which is headquarterd in Wetzikon, Switzerland. I had met him several years ago in Madrid where I was involved in one of thier groups. I was able to go to his offices since I live only one hour away and we had a cup of coffee and talked for a while.

Europartners is a movement of local independent organizations in Europe. It forms the European branch of Christian Business Men's Committees (CBMC) International. You can find out more at thier site. Their vision is to see a movement of God among business and professional leaders in every nation, resulting in lasting life change that continues to multiply. They have groups in quite a few countries in Europe. One thing that I like about the organization is that they work hard to develop leaders from the host countries.

Their mission is to present Jesus Christ to business and professional people in Europe; enabling them to manage their business according to biblical principles.

Thier strategy is:

Prayer - praying and expecting the Lord to work in lives
Relationships - Building trust and friendship
Outreach- Presenting Jesus Christ and taking opportunities to witness
Visiting - Following up on people and helping them in their workplace
Investing - Spending time with people to help them discover God in their lfe
Discipleship - Helping believers to grow in Christ and join a church
Equipping - Teaching believers to apply biblical principles in their daily business

If you are working in Europe in the marketplace you may want to see if they have a group in your area.

I feel led ..

2009-04-03T13:24:00.002+02:00

Okay. That is a bad attention grabber. I have heard that a lot over the years and I bet I have said it a few times as well.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (New Living Translation)

I have been thinking a lot lately on the role of the Holy Spirit in our mission endeavors.
Several things have probably stirred this up a bit for me. Maybe I will get to that later on in another post. But I need to start here.

We talk a lot about being a church that is in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the utter most parts. Some churches use that as their strategy plan for missions. But that is not my point either in this. The part that I some times leave out is the role of the Holy Spirit in mission.

As believers we have the Holy Spirit living in us.
What does the Holy Spirit do in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ?

convicts us of sin

comforts us
gives us hope
gives us boldness
and gives us direction.

These are all significant but it is the direction part that is extremely vital in mission.
“As we Go” (sidenote: This is the title of my book that I have been writing for a year but cannot seem to complete) about fulfilling the Great Commission we have the promise of the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct us in the church. This is pretty cool.

More soon….

life questions

2009-03-29T13:00:00.004+02:00

This morning we took our "little girl" to Zurich to catch a plane for the states. She is spending her spring break this year visiting a couple of the schools that she has been accepted to and also trying to find a job for the summer. I cannot believe she is now 18.

As my wife and I watched her go through passport control it made me think of some questions:

Am I really old enough to have a 18 year girl?

Is she really going to graduate high school in June?

Did the stock market really have to go down so much this year? Not a good year for it.

Have I been a good steward of these 18 years that we have had with her?

Not to sound like a country song or even "cat's in the cradle" - it does not seem that long ago when we taught her to ride a bike and how to ride the metro in Madrid all by herself. Thankfully there is a Starbucks at the airport in Zurich. It is located next to the passport control and I was to ease my pain with a cafe au lait as she went to board the plane.

and to my girl.... Good luck this week. We will be praying for you.

think and act globally from day one

2009-03-18T09:30:00.005+01:00

In the 90s I was involved in church planting in the states. I had some awesome experiences and I think God used what we did in some terrific ways.

Since being overseas from 2001 I have often wondered what would be my "do -overs" or "mulligans". I like this term in golf for it means when you hit a bad shot (for me that is quite often) then you ask for a mulligan. Some people simply take the mulligan. This is where it is good to play with someone else who is a believer (in mulligans that is).

The big "do-over" for me in church planting would be this. I would engage
our new church in missions internationally from day one. In fact this has
been our theme so far this year as we have been involved in some conferences
for church planting.

Here is where I need your help if you are willing. We are working with Lifeway Research on a
survey (it only takes 5 minutes) where we ask a series of questions for
people involved in church planting. We want to learn from church planters
about their past, current and potential involvement in global missions. We think we
can get some good information that will help us help new churches in the
future regarding missions.

If this is you, would you take a few minutes to help us with this research?
You can find the survey at www.theupstreamcollective.org

Let it Snow!

2009-03-13T15:56:00.002+01:00

Kandern. Basel. Marsielle. Zurich. Adelboden (Switzerland). Prague . Atlanta. Birmingham. Richmond. All of these places have two things in common for me. I have been there in 2009 and it has snowed in each place while I have been there. I am sitting in Richmond Virginia this morning in mid March and it is snowing. I cannot believe it. I have always asked for a winter of snow. I think I have finally received my wish. I do not know if I will ask for it again in 2010. I may ask for beaches and sun.

I have been a real slacker in my writing lately and I am sorry. I hit the busy season of events and conferences that we have put on or spoken at. Not to mention 100’s of meetings in between. I am excited (can’t believe I am saying this) to get back into my study of German. I am also excited about some opportunities I see locally for ministry. Pray for me as some of these things unfold.

ALSO - I am very excited to be back with my wife and children.

I want to tell you about a dinner that is coming up in April that if you are attending the Exponential Church Planting Conference that I would love for you to attend. We are hosting along with Christian Associates International a dinner with Alan Hirsch and Ed Stetzer. The two guys are a couple of good friends and great speakers / authors and influencers of all things missional. I have asked them to come together to talk about the idea of planting a church together. What would it look like? What considerations would they make if they were planting a church together? What conversations would they have? If you are going to be in the Orlando area on Monday night April 20th at 6:30 pm and you want to attend this dinner please sign up at www.theupstreamcollective.org . The cost is 10.00 and that is to cover the cost of the meal.

Prague

2009-02-28T00:08:00.002+01:00

This past week I found myself in another city in Europe. I know I say that about most cities I visit here but Europe is full of fascinating cities, full of history and tradition yet with a common element: needing the gospel in a personal and relevant way. Prague was no different for me.

I was able to see the famous Charles Bridge. This is where the important historical event of Mission Impossible was filmed with Tom Cruise. Okay maybe not “historical” but there are plenty of people crossing that bridge and thinking of Tom Cruise at the same time.

It is also a city where communism fell as a result of the Velvet Revolution.
As a result it seems that capitalism and tourism came sweeping into Prague.
People tell me it is a city where Atheism is high. The culture leaped into post modernity. I read this article about religion in Prague. Interesting read and sparked my interest when it discusses a Spanish Jewish migration into the city in 1492.

The city is also famous for John Huss who was the famous reformer from Prague. You can see his statue in the Old Town. You can read a short article about him here.

There are people here who are trying to make a difference. They are living in Prague in an incarnational way. They are being salt and light in a city of need. Pray for these workers and if you have an interest in helping out here shoot me an email? larry@theupstreamcollective.org

Strasbourg, France - Valentine's Day 09

2009-02-16T19:36:00.002+01:00

This weekend my wife Susan and I celebrated 22 years of marriage. Yes, that is right. I am a helpless romantic. We were married on Valentines Day. Someone told us that roses would be cheaper on that day. They were lying. Smile. We were able to take an overnight trip to a city that we have always wanted to visit; Strasbourg, France. It sits on the border of Germany and France. It is about 1.5 hours from our house.

It is a really cool city. I know I say that about most cities here but I mean it this time. Grin. We like to take urban plunges since we live in a small village now. I found a hotel in the area called Petit France. We ate at an awesome restaurant called Chez Yvonne We were told that many of the French presidents have eaten there. We did not see any but it was a great place to have our Valentines dinner. Probably the best steak that I have had in Europe with the exception of an Argentine Steakhouse in Madrid. It would take a lot to beat that steakhouse but this one was excellent.

I really tried hard to just be a tourist this weekend. I did not twitter, facebook, blog or do email all weekend. Not that I am addicted or anything. But even as a couple on holiday we could not help but to observe some aspects of the city.

As we crossed the Rhine river and entered into the metro area we noticed 100’s of tour buses and a mass of people walking to a park. Traffic was a mess. See Why?

It was a peaceful demonstration from the view of our car but it was a reminder of the magnitude of immigrants who live in Europe.

Some Fast Facts about the city:
• There are about 700,000 people who live in the metro area of Strasbourg.
• Home of the European Parliament (EP)
• The European Court of Human Rights seats there.
• In 1647 the Cathedral became the world’s tallest building for over 200 years.
• The inventor and printer Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg lived there for some time. You may remember his work called the Gutenburg Bible.

But beyond famous people and buildings Strasbourg like all cities in Europe are in desperate need of the Gospel. Interestingly enough a friend of mine sent this to me this past week. Check out this link on Strasbourg for a really cool way to map the city and pray for the people there.

The Intangible Mission Journey

2009-02-12T09:46:00.002+01:00

I am convinced that our ministry in Europe can sometimes be "intangible". I am not meaning by this that it is not needed or is unimportant compared to countries for example that are in the 10/40 window for I believe there is an extreme need in Europe and it is strategically very important. For one example of this check out reconsider europe.

I am saying it can look different than what people often think of as expressions of traditional missionary efforts. This is sometimes hard for churches and for missionaries to grasp. I know it has been some of my story of the last 8 years. Ministry in Europe takes place at meals, in cafes, playing sports but one thing connects it all: it is highly relational. I was much more comfortable with designing a cool mail out or event and having people come to our church plant.

A few weeks ago a new friend of mine Daniel who has connected with us at The Upstream Collective sent me the following email. He gave me permission to print this post. This describes a part of his journey in what we affectionately call “The Intangible Mission Trip”.

"I was trying to think of a few highlights from N. Ireland that I thought worthy of sharing with you, and I am a bit troubled because I can't think of many specific events as I am processing what I learned from this relational trip. Even though I've gone as part of the leadership taking teams of high school students over there twice before, going on this advance trip with 2 of my other leaders was a learning experience.

The main thing that's always hard for me to wrap my mind around is the value of the relational ministry. Even though I've taken students over there for the purpose of relational ministry, it feels weird to go by myself with the purpose of sharing experiences and conversations with people, getting coffee/tea with local believers, praying with them, and encouraging them. Though it is a trip filled with long days that are tiring, it feels much like a vacation because it energizes me to see how God is working in the lives of people all around the world. It's not a ministry where you see instant conversion type fruit all the time, or a project you can quickly look back on and say "I helped do that". A lot of times it's spreading the seed, and praying for God to send workers into the harvest when they are ready.

There was a particularly cool God appointment we had during our time there. We usually work in a small town, but we do have some friends up in Belfast that we wanted to meet up with some time during the week. The only time we could both get together was on Thursday. It just so happened that on Thursday evening this family was entertaining the new youth worker in their church, who had just 2 days earlier moved back to N.I. after four years of ministry in North America. I won't go into the details of the conversation, but it was one of those conversations where we just dreamed together about what God might want to do in Belfast, offered our support and service if needed, and all left mutually encouraged. Those friends may come to stay with us and intern in our church, or we may have an opportunity to go stay with them. Some might say experiences like this make the world seem smaller, but I'm convinced they just make God look bigger."

Thanks Daniel for writing out some of your story. Thanks for your passion to see the peoples of Europe come to know Christ and encouraging churches here.

You can find out more about Daniel by following him on Twitter at norniron.

a new type of missionary

2009-02-05T13:39:00.002+01:00

Paris. Athens. Budapest. Frankfurt. Rome. Madrid. Vienna. Stockholm. Basel.

The urban centers of Europe are the new frontier of missions.

Stockbroker. Artist. Lawyer. Electrician. Professor. Programmer.

And these are its missionaries.

While Europe doesn’t often spring to Americans’ minds when they hear the word “missions,” the spiritual need in the region is overwhelming. Less than 2 percent of the population of most European countries is known to follow Christ.

In societies so numbed to the institutional church, cultural rituals and historical Christendom, being a “missionary” often calls for something totally different than the traditional face of North American missions.

What if the most effective missions meant simply living life with purpose among the peoples of Europe, working in a normal job, building friendships with co-workers and neighbors?

What if churches in the United States actively participated in sending out their best church members, not as missionaries, but simply as themselves? What if churches prayed and dreamed with those workers about how to live their lives as salt and light in their new European hometowns? What if churches took back – and took full advantage of – their role in the Great Commission?

Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be about anyway?

check out - www.skybridgecommunity.net

The above post was written by a member of the Skybridge Community and currently lives in Europe.

language learning

2009-02-02T13:27:00.004+01:00

Last week I was sitting in one of our meetings where we talk with people who have lived overseas for less than a year. It is a time for refreshment as well as some training opportunities.

Being a language student myself (notice I did not say a good one) I went to one of the seminars where a linguistic coordinator for our organization spoke. I had heard this some time back when we moved to Spain in 2001 and while I was learning Spanish. Now that I am learning German it was a great reminder and it really is transferable to a lot of things that we learn.

I also know that many people in the states are now trying to learn a second language.

Consider this about Europeans

26% of Europeans speak three languages or more.
53% of Europeans speak 2 languages
71% of all Europeans believe that one should speak atleast two languages
72% of Europeans believe that other languages are useful and important
93% believe that children should learn other languages.

GLUE helps me in language learning. I hope it can help you if you are learning a new language.
It helped me in just writing some things down for my own goals. I am definitely not the expert in language learning.

Get what you need
Learn what you get
Use what you learn
Evaluate what you learn

So as I am learning language I determine what I need and find ways to get it: ability to greet, order food at a restaurant, banking, talking on the telephone, reading the newspaper, listening to the radio, conversations about everyday stuff, conversation about heartfelt topics

I then try to learn these things by learning vocabulary and grammar. I love making notecards and i have been known to write post it notes on our furniture to label the pieces. I prefer using a language teacher or being in a class and then augmenting that with extra reading and listening excerises. For instance today my language teacher gave me a book to read that is German and English with a listening CD. I can use various mediums to pick up the German in this children’s book. I have used Berlitz and Rosetta Stone before and really like those resources. You can also get a lot of language by watching and listening to television or music in that language.

I then go on the street and try it out. I talk to anyone who may talk to me. I try to ask questions and try to get people to ask me questions. I have not done this so far here but in Spain I would have intercambios where I would ask for someone to speak to me for 30 minutes in Spanish in exchange for me speaking 30 minutes of English. I have also done this at Mexican restaurants in the states where I can practice my Spanish. So if you are trying to learn a language while living in the states (I highly recommend that) then with a little work you can find language partners in the states. Many times these people would love a chance to improve their English. Not to mention the obvious opportunities for ministry.

Then you need to evaluate what you are learning. Obvisously if you are taking formal classes tests or quizzes help you do this. You can also ask a native speaker how you are doing. You can find some online resources that will help measure your success in learning a language.

Good luck on your journey of language learning. It is well worth the effort.

adios,

Larry

2009-01-30T13:45:00.006+01:00

This week we have been working on developing our site at www.skybridgecommunity.net. There is a really cool article on the front page about a person's journey in finding work in Europe. I think you will like it.

I really like what Todd Littleton pastor of Snowhill Church near Oklahoma City said about the idea of the Skybridge Community. I think it is a great summation of what we are wanting to see happen.

"..we are discovering a new “breed” of missional missionaires. Those who understand following Jesus is not a profession. Rather than feel led to a place, figuring out what to do, get trained and then go, these young people believe God wants them to live elsewhere. Not just live, but settle and live out their lives among people who need to be connected with God. Rather than as professional missionaries, they are professionals who get what missional living is all about. They take up resident in another place. Live out their lives. Share hospitality in the name of Jesus and demonstrate what Andrew Jones refers to as Jesus’ model of “throwing parties and telling stories.”

Marsielle, France

2009-01-20T23:38:00.008+01:00

Bonjour.

I was able to spend a few days last week in Marsielle presenting a few sessions at a training event. I was also able to get a preview into the May 2009 Upstream Collective vision trip to that city. We will be touching down in two cities: Rome and Marsielle.

Marsielle is an awesome city and one that will be a fascinating place to explore with the pastors who are coming along on this journey.

Some fast facts:

The picture you see above is a beautiful cathedral called Notre Dame de la Garde and it overlooks the old port into Marsielle. The idea is that "Mary" overlooks the city and protects the ships as they come in and out of the harbor.

Notre Dame de la Garde also overlooks Chateau d'If famous from the book by Alexandre Dumas entitled: The Count of Monte Cristo.

Also:

It is the oldest city in France. Marsielle was settled in 600 BC by the Greeks.

It is the third largest urban area in France with nearly 1.5 million people.

Some demographic studies show that over 25 percent of the population are people from North Africa. For a great blog on ministry opportunities with these people groups check out this.

There are also said to be almost 80,000 Jews making it the third largest urban Jewish community in Europe.

As in many cities in Europe there are beautiful buildings and scenery but the spiritual needs are vast. In reading some bible commentaries this week on the book of Acts I read this quote. The late Noel O. Lyons, for many years director of the Greater Europe Mission, used to say, "Europe is looked over by millions of visitors and is overlooked by millions of Christians. Europe needs the Gospel today as it did in Paul's day.."

If you are interested in this vision trip please visit www.theupstreamcollective.org

working in Europe

2009-01-14T17:42:00.002+01:00

Last week I talked about a new initiative that the upstream collective has launched called the Skybridge Community. It is about people who intentionally come to Europe to live and work and be an incarnational witness here.

Just after I posted that article I had a conversation with a person at a Mosaic Alliance Conference that I attended near Basel Switzerland last weekend. As we were talking about what we did for a living I explained about my job and how we were involved in launching a network called Skybridge. She went on to tell me that she works for a company in Dusseldorf Germany that teaches English to business professionals. I asked her if they ever needed native speakers to teach and she said that they sometimes look for teachers. Teaching English is just one way to look for a job here. With the business language in Europe being English then the market for English teachers now is high. If you have an interest in this do a google search on English Teaching schools in Europe and check out the possibilities and requirements.

It is not an easy task at all but I ran across a pretty cool site the other day for people looking at working abroad. Check it out here .

Why Have a Normal Job?

2009-01-10T08:25:00.004+01:00

I wanted to give you a short post about an initiative that we have been working as a part of the Upstream Collective.

Somehow, intentionally or not, many American Christians were taught that being a professional missionary is a higher calling, the best and most appropriate way to respond to a call to missions. But the Skybridge Community would propose that being a full-time Christian worker is not the only way to be an effective missionary.

In fact, in some circles, particularly in Europe, the best way to be a missionary is NOT to be a "missionary." The most effective way many people can make an impact on their friends in Europe is by entering the culture as "one of the gang" - someone facing similar work and life situations as their peers. That's where having a normal job comes in.

It's time to elevate and validate the calling of these unpaid missionaries who take seriously their responsibility to live out their faith incarnationally overseas. It's also time for the local church to step up and take back its role in the Great Commission, sending out its best and brightest to live and work abroad, getting more personally involved in God's work through prayer, being present on the field both short- and long-term, and learning how to take good care of their newly commissioned business executives, students, waiters, graphic designers ... you get the picture.

That's what the Skybridge Community is for: networking, encouraging and equipping these "secular" workers who see their part in the Great Commission as being as valid as any commissioned missionary - and helping them, in turn, to equip their local church body to play its part in global missions as well.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T16:08:00.001+01:00

As the year comes to a close I have been reflecting about 2008. I wanted to say thanks to those of you who follow this blog.

I really have two passions and I hope they come across in these blogs or at least this is my intent.
I want to help new church plants and the emerging church engage in global missions (I think they have so much to offer) and I want to see the peoples of Europe come to faith in Jesus Christ. I hope this stuff can be of use to someone or some churches out here.

As I look back on this year it has been a wild ride. I mean this in a good sense. smile.
We have been able to see two dreams get off of the ground and we could not have done this without many of you. Your prayers, your support has helped the Upstream Collective and the Skybridge Community take off. SO THANKS!

We are so looking forward to 2009 and what God has in store for these new movements. Thanks for telling other people about them. We hope that God will use them in the years to come.

Happy New Year!

Bon Appetit

2008-12-30T19:55:00.004+01:00

Ever been to a restaurant before it opens? You are on the outside looking in and you see the workers sitting around the table eating. Being American and living the last few years in Spain we would sometime find ourselves not able to eat quite so late when we went out. So we would go to dinner around 8:30 or 9 pm and some of the restaurants were still closed preparing to open for the traditional late start dinner in Spain.

I would see the workers sitting around eating. I must confess that I sort of felt like they should be opening the restaurant to feed me.

Then I became interested in cooking. I am not ready to claim it as a hobby. I have actaully cooked four times this year for our family. They are not crying out for me to take it up as a hobby either. However I can make great lattes and cappuccinos. This holiday season I actually even picked up a magazine in our apartment here in Germany. I found this really cool paragraph talking about why the workers eat before the restaurant opens.

Bon Appetit - September 2008, p.146
Before a single customer walks into a restaurant, there is a lot to be done. Stock the bar. Set the tables. Eat.. At most restaurants, that pre-service meal is called family meal. Why? Because of the intense pressure of the restaurant world turns coworkers into family. Much like an actual family does, the employees sit down, eat, and catch up over dinner. And the food on the table is often as casual as the conversation. It's good, hearty fare (think meatloaf, pot pie, mac and cheese) that will keep going until that last diner heads off into the night. "At family meal, there's no heirarchy," says Seattle chef Tom Douglas of Dahlia Lounge. "You're breaking bread with your friends, For those 30 minutes, everyone is equal- and hungry."

When I read that I started thinking about teams and how important community is. If the community is strong within a team I believe in most cases it allows the team to function more effectively. Communication flows freely up and down the chain of supervision because instead of being tied to giving and receiving orders you are sitting around the table together sharing life. Granted that given the source of this paragraph the restaurants they are talking about will be certain to have a good chef. It would be hard to sit around the table eating food you did not like. I dont know if this story would hold up in some restaurants. But I think you get the picture. But it made me think about some team stuff.

How often do you eat with your team?
What do you talk about?
Are you sharing life together?

missions - still in reverse mode

2008-12-23T17:25:00.003+01:00

With economic times being as they are in the states I wonder how that will affect short term mission trips or humanitarian trips this next year? I know in Europe their dollar is still quite strong. But here is another idea.

Want to try something different?

Each year we always have friends here in Europe who wants to send their students to the states to be immersed in English and the US culture. It is really a ready made opportunity to be the salt and light to young people. I have also had business people who have asked me if they knew of a family that they could live with for a month in order to learn English. If you cannot go on a trip why not try this way?

There are some really good inter-cultural exchange programs and organizations out there. We do not always need to recreate something. Pray about if the Lord may be leading you to a certain people or place. If you know of a worker in a particular place that you support or your church does why not start there? Do a google search on the topic and see what you find out. Then find a good match for your family. What a great opportunity to share your life with someone from another culture. You will learn alot about their culture as well. Plus in most cases you will have made a life long friend that will go well beyond your time together.

reverse mission opportunities 2

2008-12-16T12:04:00.002+01:00

To keep going on my reverse mission trip theme.

I wonder if this would work. I have never tried it and I am sure someone has so I would be interested in how did it work?

Instead of you bringing your church to "do" a basketball camp or soccer camp that you could bring a group of people to "attend" a soccer camp in Europe? What if you were able to equip your participants to come and live life side by side with a European and be able to share your faith with them in some natural ways? Not to mention learn some pretty good soccer skills.

You see most of the time we want to go on a mission trip and and “Do” something so that someone can attend it and thus hear the gospel. What if we simply get involved in something that is already going on and find ways to tell our story in that way? To me this is the more natural way to share our faith. It is being the salt and light to a group of people.

reverse mission opportunities

2008-12-14T08:50:00.001+01:00

On my last post I wrote about what we could / should we consider doing differently regarding missionaries from North America. I work in Europe. Many people describe Europe as being post Christian. This is not to say that there are no believers here. This is not to say there are not churches here. Both exist but in smaller numbers. It is saying that many people believe that Christianity was tried here and does not work. Others may simply reject it or dismiss it or say it can be one of many choices.

Ministering in this context is quite a challenge. I must admit that my previous experience in the states focused more on attracting people to church. Now when I hear of people coming to Europe to “teach” us the latest attractional model I know I can sometimes be skeptical of such. For the attractional model assumes that people actually are looking for a church. This is not the case here.

BUT... what if…

I had a conversation with a worker yesterday and he gave me a neat idea. Part of my role is helping churches in North America connect with Europe. What do you think of when I say that? I know for me I use to always think that this means that we need a church in the states to come and HELP a church in Europe.

What if we reversed that? What if we had a church in America partner with a church in Europe not to be the great hope but to actually be a “learner”?

What if the church here in Europe could help you? Here is the idea on this. If North America is following the path of post Christian Europe could we not learn from some expressions of faith and community in Europe? How are they thriving or not amidst the world they are living in? What are they learning about the attractional model in a post Christian context? What can we learn from them that would better prepare our churches here in North America to reach our communities?

Anyone looking for such a partnership?

Sitting on the bench

2008-12-03T16:04:00.004+01:00

The last two weeks I have been playing basketball at the Black Forest Academy. This past week we had two games. I played in the first one against the JV team and I must say I was a scoring machine. I had my touch back. Remember, I am a legend in my own mind when it comes to basketball. But I will still try to take most people on. The second game was against the varsity. Our team expanded to about 16 players. If you know much about basketball it is a game where only 5 can play at a time for a team. I was not in the top five for the varsity game. In fact I was not in the top ten. As I sat there and watched I realized how much I detest sitting on the bench. I did not like it when I actually played competitively and I do not like it now. There is something about if you have your uniform on you need to be playing. Not many people come to see someone sitting on the bench unless it is your mom or girlfriend. Not many headlines are about people who sit on the bench. Stars play in the game.

Using the same metaphor but switching the context I go to a conversation that I had with a well known writer and church planter in Europe who is an European. He posed a question to a few of us at a meeting a few weeks ago. He asked the question: Is it time for North American missionaries to sit on the sidelines for a while? and if it is what can you learn that will help you in the future?

He asked if we were comfortable with that? Umm… (this is me thinking)

This was hard to grasp for I have a hard time making that mesh with the Great Commission since it tells us to GO. Do we just tell God that we need to take a break and sit on the bench a while? “We will get back to the Great Commission in a few years”. While I know we cannot take a break from being a part of the Great Commission should we as North Americans re-evaluate our role as missionaries overseas? I am not ready to buy my ticket, pack up the house and come back to the states but there may be some lessons that we can learn.

Are there some things we should stop doing?

Are there some things we should start doing?

What about some things that we should do differently?

So while I am not prescribing solutions to this I do want to pose the question – what would you learn if you sat on the bench for a while?

What do you do with a church building?

2008-11-27T15:42:00.003+01:00

Happy Thanksgiving.

As I was doing some online news reading this morning a story jumped out at me and so I decided I would go back and grab this photo that I took earlier this Fall in Basel Switzerland. This was one of the city's main churches years ago. It is now a musuem.

Europe has quite a few options in when comes to using old churches buildings. You can find quite a few for sale in many of the cities.

You may remember an earlier blogpost. This is the literal
House Church in Bellagio, Italy on Lake Como.

You can find quite a few that are now mosques.

And this morning the source of inspiration for this post. I found this one in the Netherlands. This church has been converted into a Luxury Resort . The writer says he would enjoy going to this church on a regular basis.

Basketball at Black Forest Academy

2008-11-23T17:54:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I went to the gym and played basketball with the high school boys team where our kids go to school and where my wife teaches espanol. The one word that would best describe my basketball experience would be "awakening". I was awakened that I am in the middle ages and I no longer can play like Michael Jordan. I would love to tell you more about it but I am still out of breath from running full court for two hours. I have taken a lot of Advil since yesterday afternoon as well.

The scrimmage was at the Black Forest Academy . BFA is a boarding school for Third Culture Kids. Many of these kids come here because their parents work in some difficult places where high school education can be a challenge. My wife teaches Spanish in the high school. I have been able to get to know a number of the teachers and staff and I am most impressed. I was talking to a guy the other day who told me that it has been said that 50 percent of the graduates end up living overseas again either doing mission , social work or simply living out their faith as salt and light in various countries of the world.

I see the investment in these kids as an incredible opportunity. I am so thankful for people like my wife and many others who have a special calling to pour their lives and talents into these kids for a season. When you get a chance check out their site. You may see our kids somewhere in the pictures. Pray for the teachers and staff. Pray for the kids as well as they are in important developmental years before college. Pray for the basketball team to find some better practice competition than someone in theior 40s. smile

the guide

2008-11-19T13:56:00.002+01:00

On recent visit to an area where I had never really been before, I was faced with the task of how to enter into a couple of new cities. I saw the importance of the role of a guide because they were from that city and could speak the same language culturally and linguistically.

The first instance was in a small city in the south of Spain. It was about 11:00 am and time for some much needed coffee. We entered into this small city where almost 75 percent of the people that I observed were from North Africa. They work in the migrant agriculture fields there. Because of the economy many do not have jobs now. There was a construction boom going on in Spain and now it has busted. So a lot of construction workers are jobless, and they spend their time hanging out during the normal work hours hoping to find work. We were walking around the street looking for a place to go for coffee. Our leader enters into a Tea house and comes out with the owner who has a big smile on his face. We were welcomed into the tea house. The owner makes us some great tea and some awesome Moroccan pastries. As he sits down and talks with us, the thought struck me that the reason we had that experience was because our guide, our person of influence, introduced us to the gatekeeper if you will of that crowded bar. Because he welcomed us others also welcomed us.

The second instance was in another city. Again, it was time for coffee or tea. I do not mind if it is coffee or tea as long as it is strong and caffeinated. This time our host for the trip enlisted the help of a guide from that country. I made a couple of observations. We entered into a place and he introduces us and lets the owner know we are good people and honest people. We are instantly welcomed into conversations and taken care of. The second observation was that our guide only stayed with us half of the day. As we walked through the city or “medina,” with our guide, people watched us but they did not really approach us asking us to buy things or give them money. As soon as our guide left us, we became the target of many people coming to talk with us and ask us to buy things or give them things. We had lost our guide. We had lost the person who connected us to the culture.

I am learning just how important introductions are. I recall the story of Levi the tax collector found in Luke 5:27 - 29

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

To me this is one example in scripture where we see how people introduce us into their circles of friends or family. It is what is called their “oikos” in the New Testament. Levi invited Jesus into his relationship network. I think it is important as we try to missionally live out our lives that we connect with people who can introduce us into the community. What I loved about this particular story in scripture was not that Levi tried to bring his people to Jesus but that he invited Jesus to his people. As I observe the church today I think we far too often expect people to come to us to meet Jesus instead of meeting them where they are living.

sent

2008-11-17T15:03:00.005+01:00

As a part of our Basel Lab experience we were sent out in two’s which is from the model that Jesus gave us in Luke 10 when he sent the disciples out two by two to the cities where he was about to go. I went out with my friend D. As we walked around we made notes of the places and people that we saw. Another aspect of this narrative mapping process is to really be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I think when I have read Acts 1:8 and the Great Commission in the past I become too fixated on the location and where I am suppose to go more than I do in following the Holy Spirit in His timing and place.

Do we stay in Jerusalem?

Should we venture out to Judea?

What about Samaria?

When do we go to the utter most parts of the earth?

A couple of thoughts on this
A) The Spirit should drive the strategy. The promise of the Holy Spirit in the church is that it will lead us, guide us, encourage us, convict us, comfort us, etc… Regarding missions, the church should depend on the Spirit to lead as did Paul in his call to Macedonia.

B) We can be missional wherever we are and it count just as much in the kingdom as it does if you sell your possessions and take your family overseas. I personally think in some ways it was harder to share my faith amongst the people I lived with on a daily basis in the states then it was when I went on a mission trip or in my case moved over seas. Acts 1:8 is about BOTH / AND not EITHER / OR. It is about being missional wherever you are.

Back to Basel - One “take away” for me on this Basel Lab was the fact that I realized that no matter where I am I am drawn to a certain people. It does not matter where they live. I find this when I visit the states. I find this when I go to Spain or Morocco or Italy or when I am home near Basel. I am drawn to Spanish speaking people and in particular Spaniards. So when we were assigned by our trainer this certain area of Basel we had no idea what we would discover so we started taking notes and talking to people as we went.

Sure enough the Lord put some pretty cool things in our path. We had the Spanish Consulate, a Spanish Vino y Tapas bar, a Spanish kindergarten, a Social club where Spanish speakers meet and we even heard of a Spanish speaking evangelical church. I know this may seem quite obvious but this gave me a clue that there are Spanish speakers living in Basel Switzerland. Grin.

Later the next day we went out again and this time we ate at a local restaurant. Often in the case of these countries they will sit you on a bench next to another couple or family. We sat next to a couple where the woman was from Switzerland and the husband was from the USA. We talked for quite a long time and one thing that we were able to discover was the migration of certain peoples to Switzerland. She told us that about 50 years ago Italians came and then Spaniards and then people from Turkey so they could find work and that in those days the Swiss allowed people to come and work since they needed to build up their work force. This piece of information helped me realize that indeed we did find a Spanish population. An important aspect of narrative mapping is finding information givers in a community so that you can learn from them about the people and places of that area.

I think as I mentioned before, one thing that I am all about regarding mission strategies in churches is the idea that as your church senses some leadership from the Holy Spirit to reach a certain people group that the church will work towards reaching them no matter where they live. There are a growing number of churches doing this. One such church that I have talked to lately regarding connecting with some people in Europe is the Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas. They have a desire to reach a people group and they are doing so everywhere that people groups lives. So this means that in their community, in the states, in Europe and in that particular country. In my mind this is a good way to flesh out how being missional can look. They are integrating missions in their community to missions in the world.

We live in a small world. We live close together.
The world has come to Europe and the United States. Many of the unreached peoples in the world live in the states. How can we connect with them in the states? It is a great opportunity. Sure we need to go overseas. We need to take mission trips but AS WE are doing this we also need to be seeking to build relationships and share Christ with these people in our own cities.

Some questions to consider:
Who lives in your city? consider doing some narrative mapping to explore your area

What are some ways you can reach out to these people?

What needs do they have as people who come from a different country?
How can you help meet those needs?
How can you help them feel at home ? Personally if it were not for our spanish and german friends (believers and non-believers) making us feel welcome here then it would be much more difficult to carry on day to day.

basel day two

2008-11-08T07:49:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was a pretty cool day in Basel. I will need to make this two posts just so this will not be super long. Plus, I only have a few minutes before we go out the door for day three. Part of our day is in the classroom where we meet at a local church for debriefing on our mapping time, some teaching elements which are pretty cool. Yesterday morning we were given a map of the city. The leaders gave us a section of the city to walk around. Our instructions were to walk around the boundary of our section of the city; to pray, to observe and to connect where possible. We were sent out in twos. We talked about Luke 10 as we prepared to go in our section of the city.

As we walked around our boundary I thought about what we were doing. There are several things that we wanted to accomplish:

1. We want to pray a blessing on the people we encounter.
2. We want to learn by observation such as locating types of churches, main passage ways in and out of our area, gathering places, people groups or people group segments who live in the city, etc..
3. As possible we wanted to interact and talk to people to learn about the area. This is part of what we would call narrative mapping.

Looking back this first step in mapping our area is so important. I do some training and helping groups prepare to come overseas and minister in cross cultural situations. In these first hours in our area it was also important to acclimate. This may not be as important for some people but for me it is huge. Some people are able to enter into a new area and process all of the newness however I have found over the years that I need time when I enter into a new area to adjust to my surroundings. When everything is brand new around me I need a little time to soak it in and try to start interpreting it from a missional perspective.

I found these first hours to be vitally important for me to acclimate to my surroundings, to get my bearings. I found that as I spent time on this first day praying and observing that I became more and more comfortable with my area and thus able to interact with people as time went on.
This proved to be very beneficial later in the day.

More later.

back in basel

2008-11-06T21:48:00.002+01:00

After several weeks off I finally made it back to my Basel experience. Sorry. Over the next four days I will be part of a small group of missional leaders who work in Western Europe at various capacities. It is one of the ways in which we equip our workers here to live missionally in an urban environment. We are doing what is called "The Basel Lab". This initiative originally started as London Lab but this year is using Basel as the base. It is an integrated approach where we have some classroom time and then follow it up with being on the streets.

Tomorrow we start off by walking around a section of the city that my team will work in for the next several days. Our purpose in the morning is to spend time walking around the boundary of our area and getting to know that part of our area. We will be making notes and praying along way. I am sure we will drink some coffee as we go. We will be looking for opportunities to connect with the people. I am making no promises since I have been such a slacker the last few weeks on writing. But I will try to post throughout my time here.

I am excited about one email I received today from a person is a cell group leader at a Spanish Church here. I found him several weeks ago from a connection made earlier in the city here. I contacted this pastor and we are going to get together sometime in the next week or so to talk. There has been an influx of Spanish speaking people (some from Spain and others from Latin America) to Basel in the last 20 years. This church is focused on reaching those people. I hope I can be of help.

Next week I will also make some posts about an incredible experience that I had in Southern Spain and in Africa this past week.

Doing Business WITH Mission

2008-10-29T07:30:00.004+01:00

Ever heard the phrase in missions, “doing business as mission?” I’ve heard it used to describe professional missionaries who go to their respective fields with a platform (such as a business) to gain access into a closed country legally or to gain credibility among the people of a culture. We see some solid biblical examples in the life of Paul.

But in today’s culture, while we might hear the phrase “business as mission” used, I believe we should consider changing our wording to doing “business with mission.” Though replacing “as” with “with” may look like a minute change, it actually alters the meaning significantly in my opinion.

Doing business with mission can be an accurate description of living and working in a place (either at home or in another culture) missionally. It’s not simply creating a “platform” only to gain access into a culture and then not actually carrying out that task. If we create

Living missionally is an effective and authentic way to be a missionary (with or without the title) in a culture. It simply means integrating missionary efforts naturally into daily work and play.

If we all lived missionally, it wouldn’t matter where we lived or what we did. If every part of our lives is meant to be worship, and if everything we do counts as worship, then we should do it all for the glory of God.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. - 1 Cor. 10:31

Not only can we give glory to God through our work in business, social activism, art, or any other field, but it’s through our work that we can also win the respect of outsiders.

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. - 1 Thess. 4:10-12

So how could this affect global mission efforts? I see a day where thousands of believers intentionally take jobs overseas to live out their faith incarnationally in the marketplace and communities of the world. I see this as a new wave of missionary efforts in the future. And I think the local church can support them not so much with finances but with prayers, accountability, encouragement and emotional support. PLUS view them as real missionaries sent out by their church by commissioning them when possible.

Larry in Prison (actually from Paul's prison cell in Rome)

2008-10-25T10:07:00.003+02:00

Last Saturday morning I had the opportunity to go to see the Coliseum, and the Roman forum. Just outside the Forum we were able to visit inside the Mamertine prison, the dungeon in the heart of Rome believed to be the spot where the apostle Paul was imprisoned before he was executed almost two thousand years ago. I was quite amazed with this place. To actually be where a part of the Bible was written was quite awesome. Not to mention that Paul is my favorite writer of the New Testament.

Several things hit me while down in the cell. (see picture from inside the prison cell) It was a small room, low ceiling and there was not much light. If my bible history is correct it was not where Galatians was written but I instantly recalled where Paul says in that book: “See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!.” I would have to write in large print in order to see in there for sure.

I guess what I am most amazed from this view was Paul’s ability to keep focused.
I would have complained and told the Lord there is no way I can do anything from in there. I would not have had the joy as Paul did as he wrote those letters. I doubt I would be able to think so clearly as to remember to write the churches and the people that I was discipling to let them know to be prepared and continued to grow in maturity.

“yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— Philemon 1:9

Or to continually challenge us to live our lives in such a way that would honor God.
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” Ephesians 4:1

I came away thinking about how do I stay focused when circumstances do not always go the way I hope or had planned? How can I have joy when I am in prison or when I simply feel entangled by the situation that I am in.

Here is another prison verse that jumped out at me while there. This one from the book of Phillipians. This is what I must remember while in difficult circumstances.

11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Phillipians 4:13 is the first verse that I remember memorizing. I guess the first one was actually “Jesus Wept”. On that Sunday morning as a middle schooler I needed an easy win in Sunday School. I brought my bible and offering but I needed a quick verse to remember so I could get that checked off my list. Smile. But later on, I memorized 4:13 because it came at a difficult time in my life. A time where I moved from one way of living to another. A time where I moved away from living for myself to living for Jesus. A time where I moved from actually thinking I can do all things because I am capable of it to this verse recognizing that I can only do things because of the power of Christ who lives in me.

I believe this is how Paul wrote from inside the prison. His inner joy was in the Lord. His inner strength was because he had a real relationship with Jesus and he knew and believed and further more lived this truth.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 5:20