Year of the Snake

Happy Chinese New Year – The Year of the Snake

 

 

Two Posts on “Any-3”

I have recently read a book on evangelism entitled “Any-3: Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” by Mike Shipman. Shipman, a Church Planting Movement   training specialist, shares how an “Any-3” approach to evangelism can prepare any Christian to be an effective witness of the Gospel of  Jesus Christ  to anyone – regardless of their religious background, anywhere we may encounter them, at any time.

The teaching on and insights into evangelism found in “Any-3” are drawn from Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. We read of this encounter in the New Testament book of John 4:7-38.

I have written two posts about the Any-3 approach to evangelism on another blog.

The first post is simply entitled, “Any-3: Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime.”  The post addresses Mike’s teaching on how Jesus guided His conversation with the woman and how it resulted in her accepting Christ as her Savior.

• He “connected” with the woman – He “established commonality”
• He transitioned to a “God conversation,” a discussion of spiritual matters
• He led her to realize her lostness, that she was a sinner
• He proclaimed Himself to be the Messiah
• He invited her to receive the Message

The second post on Any-3 is entitled “I-5 Evangelism.” In this post, I share Shipman’s teaching on five characteristics that define Jesus’ evangelistic method.

• Jesus was Intentional in all that He did
• He was Informal in his relationships
• His evangelistic style was Interactive
• Jesus took the Initiative with people
• He always Introduced the Messiah

I found Any-3 – its teaching, and its insights into the evangelistic ministry of Jesus – to be very encouraging and of great benefit as I desire to be a  consistent, faithful, and effective witness for Christ.

 

The Great Commission By The Numbers

“As 2012 comes to an end, the global status of evangelical Christianity* finishes the year with a long way to go. Consider the following numbers:

11,342 – Number of people groups in all countries. A people group is the largest group through which the gospel can flow without encountering significant barriers of understanding and acceptance.

6,422 – Number of people groups where Evangelical Christians comprise less than 2% of the total population. These UPG stats do not include USA & Canada.

571 – Number of unreached people groups in the United States and Canada. [Note: engagement and statuses for many people groups in USA and Canada are still unknown. This number will change as more information becomes available.]

3,133 – Number of unreached people groups not engaged by anyone. A people group is engaged when a church planting strategy, consistent with Evangelical faith and practice is underway. In this respect, a people group is not engaged when it has been merely adopted, is the object of focused prayer, or is part of an advocacy strategy.

393 – Number of unreached people groups with populations at or above 100,000.

Another way of looking at these mind-boggling figures is through population numbers:

6,944,287,685 – Number of people in the above 11,342 people groups.

4,192,663,816 – Number of people in the above 6,422 people groups where Evangelical Christians comprise less than 2% of the total population.

240,245,046 – Population of the 3,133 unreached people groups not engaged by anyone.

96,381,569 – Population of unreached people groups that are not engaged by anyone, anywhere around the world.

Every one of the 6,944,287,685 persons is loved by God. Let’s not confuse numbers with real people. Each is a father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter of someone. Every single person is someone for whom Christ died.

So what does all of this mean? For me there are at least three ways to respond:

1) Indifference–not my problem, I’m not going to do anything about it, I already have a full plate of other concerns.

2) Involve myself–as we begin a new year, I am going to intentionally engage in trying to do my part in making sure the Gospel gets to the nations–I am going to inform myself, pray with understanding, give purposefully, and maybe even go myself.

3) Invite the Holy Spirit to speak to me about what He would have me do, and then do it.

**********

*Above information courtesy of Global Research Department of the International Mission Board.”

(The above was posted by Guy Muse on his blog, The M Blog, December 28 , 2012.)

 

Read Matthew 24:14.

 

I Have Tangible Thoughts

Please visit me at my other blog, tangiblethoughts, at www.tangiblethoughts.wordpress.com. There you can read about missions, church planting, Church Planting Movements, and T4T.

 

Missionary Voices From The Past

I have recently completed a series of articles on Roland Allen’s missionary classic, Missionary Methods: St Paul’s Or Ours? (1912) and posted them on my other blog, tangiblethoughts. I have just begun a series on John L. Nevius’s The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches (1886) there as well and will soon begin posting on Allen’s The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church And The Causes That Hinder It (1927).

If you are interested in church planting and church planting movements, I would encourage you to read Roland Allen and John L. Nevius. Even though they lived and ministered one-hundred + years ago, their perspectives on church planting principles and practices are as relevant today as they were when these missionary voices from the past first penned their works.

In the meantime, please visit me at tangiblethoughts and check out my posts on Allen and Nevius.

 

Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s Or Ours?: Quotes and Thoughts

I have recently finished the reading of Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s Or Ours? by Roland Allen. The book was written in 1912 and contains insights from the ministry of the Apostle Paul that are relevent for missions and cross-cultural ministry today.

I have written a post on this book on my other blog site, tangiblethoughts. I would invite you to visit it here and leave your thoughts

 

Chinese Students and Friday Night Football

International students come to America to pursue their academic careers. While they study at our universities and live among us, they want to perfect their English language conversation skills and learn about America – our histtory, traditions, and culture.

So, we teach the Bible and incorporate English conversation into the study of God’s Word, take field trips, and … go to Friday night high school football games under the lights. Football teams, cheerleaders, and marching bands.

Friday night we took three friends to a local high school game. They cheered when our team did well and they groaned when we didn’t, all the while enjoying the game and atmosphere of a great American cultural event.

By the way, we won, Vikings, 14- Gray Wolves, 0.

 

Korean Student Ministry

We are re-engaging Korean students at Texas A&M University in and through the start of a new mid-week Bible study that is a ministry of a local Korean congregation.

See my article on this new Bible study group, originally posted on my other blog, tangiblethoughts, on September 22, 2010, here.

 

CPM Resources

I have recently come across a couple of web sites that are dedicated to The Great Commission and Church Planting Movements (CPM) that I think you might be interested in.

Both sites contain a wealth of information and articles that both inform and inspire us toward the fulfillment of the Lord’s Great Commission.

The first site is a social network site called Great Commission Initiative (GCI). It was started and is moderated by Tim Ahlen, a pastor and missionary, in Dallas, Texas. In addition to the articles that you find here, the site provides you with the opportunity to connect with others who are committed to being a part of the Christ’s global plan to reach the world for Himself through the starting of new churches.

The second site is Church Planting Movements – Best Practices From Around the Globe. This is the web site of David Garrison, the Southern Baptist missionary who wrote the book, Church Planting Movements – How God Is Redeeming a Lost World. You’ll find many articles here under the headings of “The 5 Parts of CPM,” “Profiles in CPM,” and “CPM Resources.” along with much more. (Note: you can find a link to the Church Planting Movements booklet under the “Church Planting” heading in the right-hand column of this blog.)

I pray that you’ll be blessed by these sites. When you visit (and join) the GCI site, look me up there and connect with me as a “friend.”

 

ta ethne network

I’ve not been writing much on taethnenetwork lately, but am still thinking about international student ministry, doing Bible studies with Chinese students at TAMU, and relating to a local Mandarin congregation.

We’re also talking with a missions organization in Dallas about the possibility of teaching English overseas. In fact, I’m in the process of completing an application form that I hope to have completed and submitted to the agency in a couple of weeks.

Please pray for us as we continue to minister to students, seek financial support to free us up to do more ministry locally, and work on the application. Please also pray that we might know the Lord’s perfect will regarding teaching overseas.

~ reach students … disciple the “nations” ~