from March 21, 2010 prayer email

Every March, Dallas Theological Seminary cancels classes for a week to host their world evangelization conference. As a member of the DTS class of 1984, it is always a joy to be back on campus and participate in this significant annual event.



I had the privilege of representing ACMC as one of the more than 40 mission agency exhibitors who were part of the conference held March 8-12. This event provided opportunities for lots of good interactions with other sending agency reps, future pastors, and future missionaries. I also led one of two dozen brown bag lunch discussions during the week. My topic was “mobilizing your church for effective engagement in missions in the 21st century.”

The conference speaker for the week was Dr. Michael Frost. Author of The Shaping of Things to Come and Exiles. Frost spoke passionately each day on missional living and the missional church. Great stuff.



My biggest take away – identify a definable group of people that God has clearly called me to seek to reach for Christ and identify a partner to work closely with me in that effort. How about you? Who has God clearly called you to reach? If you don’t know, isn’t it about time to start asking God for that clear calling?

from March 7, 2010 prayer email

Grace Baptist Church is a nearly 70 year old independent Baptist church of 800 in a college town of 50 thousand, with Kansas State University at its core.

On Saturday evening I consulted with three members of GBC’s missions leadership team as they grapple with issues related to sharpening the focus of their global outreach efforts. The MLT recognizes the need to transition from having only a financial involvement with their 30 missionary partners to a paradigm where they will engage more deeply in a few strategically selected works.

I preached three times on Sunday morning in corporate worship services. This was the fourth of four Sunday mornings devoted to their month-long missions focus. Previous speakers had addressed issues related to the role of music, orality, and Bible translation in the missionary task. My message was titled: “God’s Word: powerful and transforming” out of Matthew 13. I spoke on the responsibility of every believer to embrace in a missional lifestyle, proclaiming Christ in their personal spheres of influence and among the least reached globally. I used the parable of the sower to illustrate that we will encounter four very different responses as we engage in sharing the gospel.



Sunday evening was GBC’s closing missions banquet. I had the opportunity to speak on “the task remaining”. We rejoiced in the tremendous progress made with the gospel through the past 20 centuries, with unprecedented progress globally in recent decades. And I challenged folks to confront the 7 greatest hurdles remaining to bring closure to the Great Commission mandate.

During this missions month, the congregation has been repeatedly challenged to pledge $180 thousand to 2010 missions engagement through their faith promise process.