Sunday, March 20, 2011

from March 20, 2011 prayer update

It has been nearly 27 years since I graduated from seminary. I can recall studying eschatology (the last days) in one of my systematic theology classes. My personal doctrinal beliefs regarding eschatology have not changed much since those days, but two important things related to them have:
• I have become convinced that there is no value in being dogmatic about the details of my beliefs concerning the last days. I should never allow them to become something divisive.
• I believe that many evangelical believers who share my beliefs do not see the forest for the trees.

This past week I taught 3 Perspectives classes in the Kansas City area (lesson 9, “the task remaining”). In the class we discussed four phenomenon that demonstrate the remarkable progress of the gospel through the centuries. All four reveal exponential growth since the mid twentieth century.
• the growing percentage of genuine believers worldwide
• the growing ratio of churches to unreached people groups globally
• the emerging evangelical and charismatic Church worldwide
• the emerging non-Western Church

We then shifted our attention to what will it take to say we have brought closure to (completed) the Great Commission. We considered what I believe are the 10 greatest challenges that lie ahead.
1. 6 religious megaspheres
2. 6900 languages
3. 6900 ethnolinguistic unreached people groups
4. the 10-40 window
5. the Muslim world
6. India
7. 64 restricted access countries
8. emerging urban centers
9. shrinking U.S. missionary forces
10. misallocated resources

We concluded our time by reflecting on Matthew 24:14, which I believe should be the bottom line of every evangelical Christian’s eschatological convictions. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (people groups), and then the end will come.”

With the recent rise of unrest in the Arab world and the steady onslaught of major natural disasters, it is easy to focus our attention on these events, and lose sight of what is primary. Although they are signs that Christ’s return for His bride may be near, they are not what is driving the process. God is a purposive and missional God. He gave the Church a compelling job to do: “disciple the nations (people groups)”. He will return for His Church when the job is done.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

from March 6, 2011 prayer update

This week I will be participating in what may be the most significant event I will be involved with in 2011. I would welcome your prayers for this event.

For many years ACMC has needed to take a step back and reassess where we are going and how we are seeking to get there. That is now happening.

On March 10-11 five of our ACMC staff members, our boss, and an outside facilitator will be meeting in Orlando to grapple with important issues regarding our future as an organization, with the goal of revisioning and focusing our work.

We will be taking a fresh look at our mission and vision statements, our core values, and our core methodologies as an organization.

We are looking to God to show up and speak with clarity to us regarding these issues. Please pray that our hearts would be prepared and tuned in to the Lord and to each other, and that we would collectively hear from Him.

We have taken several steps to prepare for this time together.
• we have been praying some common prayers
• we have been reflecting on our current mission and vision statements, core values, and methodologies
• we have received written feedback from a survey (and begun to process it) from 45 outside U.S. mission leaders regarding ACMC
• we have read Steve Moore’s new book, While You Were Micro-Sleeping: Fresh Insights on the Changing Face of North American Missions (and we will be interacting around it)
• we have selected a core group of our staff for this initial gathering who will then bring specific recommendations to the rest of our staff
• we have identified a gifted, outside facilitator (Matthew Ellison with 16:15) to lead us thru the process – please pray for Matthew to lead with wisdom and skill

Early in the process some things are already apparent:
• we need to develop a new vision statement
• we need to function more as a team, and less as lone ranger mobilizers
• we need to closely align our individual efforts with our mission and vision statements
• we need to significantly focus our efforts (identify our sweet spot), not broaden them
• we need to do a much better job of connecting with emerging generations (Gen X and millennials)
• we need to move away from methodologies that have become less effective over the years and experiment with new methodologies
• we need to grapple with funding paradigms for current and new staff and for our organization

But we suspect God has more to say to us. Pray that we would hear that this week and that our entire staff would resonate with it and own it. Also pray as we grapple with the implementation details. That will be vital in determining whether we experience meaningful and lasting change as an organization or this becomes another well intentioned conceptualizing exercise that bears little fruit.