Wednesday, March 5, 2008

God's Surprises

A basic biblical theme is that God calls and sends His people, and they question and doubt along the journey. This theme, evident in the lives of Abraham and Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah, even in the life of Jesus (recall His anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane) and Peter and Paul, continues to be played out in our lives today. Only along the journey do we become aware of God’s surprises. Our prayer of praise becomes like that of Moses . . . .
 
                       "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?
                              Who is like you—
                              majestic in holiness, 
                              awesome in glory,
                              working wonders?”
                                         (Ex. 15:11)

Like Peter led by the Spirit to the household of Cornelius, we experience God’s surprises.

 

Surprise #1: The Power of Coaching

God has raised up a uniquely gifted leader to work with us to coach church planters. Tod Vogt, our Director of Planter Equipping, is an avid learner, a good listener, a man of intense faith, and an effective equipper of missional church planters. Over the last eight months Tod has undergone extensive training to become certified as a coach, effectively coaches six church planters, and has begun to coach many others to become more effective coaches.

We are witnessing the effect of godly coaching. Church planters are overcoming entrenched patterns of human pragmatism and moving more intentionally from biblical theology to contextual practice. This coaching enables church planters to more effectively accomplish the four major tasks of church planting: connecting with the communities in which they live, guiding searchers to come to the Lord, helping new believers “grow up in their salvation” (1 Peter 2:1-3), and “equipping God’s people for works of ministry” (Eph. 4:12).

Surprise #2: The Significance of Spiritual Assessment

We are touched by the impact that our Discovery Lab has upon church planting candidates. The lab is spiritually formative, life instructive, direction setting. Participants feel God’s presence, His love and empathy. Dr. John Cooke has worked with others on the Mission Alive staff to take this assessment lab to a higher level.

Surprise #3: Church Leaders becoming Church Planters

We are surprised by the maturity of the church planter candidates whom God is calling and sending to Mission Alive. Last weekend we visited with Bob and Patti Grigg, who are sponsored by the Southern Hills church in Abilene as His representatives in San Antonio. It was a joy seeing a multi-cultural fellowship of believers and searchers who have come together in their first house church. Bob and Patti Grigg are past missionaries to the French-speaking world and once facilitated the St. Louis Internship with Stanley Shipp. Charles and Julie Kiser and Ryan and Claudia Porche are transitioning to church plant in Uptown Dallas (just north of Downtown). Charles has a MDiv from Harding Graduate School of Religion and has done internships with the Alpine church in Longview, Texas; the Pleasant Valley church in Little Rock, the Highland church in Memphis, and Christ Journey in Burleson. Ryan has served as the worship minister at the Highland church in Memphis. The Kisers and Porches are supported by the South MacArthur church in Irving and the Richland Hills church in Fort Worth. Shane and Kara Alexander and Marshall and Lara Jane Coffey are co-laboring as new church planters in Waco, Texas. Shane and Marshall were until recently ministers at the Gatesville and Anson churches respectively. They were roommates at Abilene Christian University, where Shane is finishing is a DMin and Marshall has completed a Masters in ministry. All these families hold one thing in common: Their hearts are attuned to the kingdom of God and they are courageously reaching out to searchers and skeptics and bringing them together as new communities of God. Becky and I had the joy of working with all of these new church planting families during the past week.

Since 2004, Mission Alive has been instrumental in placing 20 church planting families in 13 cities in six states. Our great joy is seeing hundreds of searchers come to the Lord in these missional church plantings.

Surprise #4: Fund-Raising

Last year we asked you to “join us on this journey” of church planting. An increased staff and expanding ministry required enhanced financial resources. We prayed that God would help us meet our 2008 budget by raising $200,000 by December 31, 2007. We praise God that this goal was met. We are overjoyed! Thanks to all of you who joined us on the financial journey.

In a recent Board Meeting Jerry Browder, elder of the Singing Oaks church in Denton and Treasurer of Mission Alive, overviewed our finances from 2004 to 2007 as a testimony of God’s faithfulness when we launch out in faith. He concluded by saying, “How amazing it is that He who owns the cattle on a thousand hills would give us meaningful work and purpose when we own nothing and are nothing before Him. To Him be the glory and praise. . . . God is calling us to be faithful and bold in the future.”

Surprise #5: Hispanic Partners in Church Planting

We praise God for raising up Hispanic leaders with whom to partner in church planting.

During the past three years, we have worked closely with Sixto Rivera. His experience in Hispanic church planting at the High Pointe church in McKinney and the Saturn Road church in Garland was amplified by going through the Mission Alive Discovery, Theology, and Strategy Labs and through personal coaching. The Latino church at the Highland Oaks in Dallas, where he now ministers, has grown over the last three years to about 150 faithful Christians. With the encouragement of the Highland Oaks church, Sixto developed Genesis Alliance, a ministry to plant Latino churches.

In February, guided and encouraged by the Highland Oaks leadership, Mission Alive and Genesis Alliance formed a joint venture to work collaboratively to plant Hispanic churches. It is an honor for us to sit with Hispanic leaders to develop processes for churches to plant churches who plant still other churches among Hispanics in North America. We reciprocally learn from each other.

We held a Hispanic Discovery Lab last month and were blessed to ask three families to enter Genesis Alliance/Mission Alive. Next week three multi-lingual Hispanic leaders will attend and learn from our Theology Lab. We will then collaboratively develop a Theology Lab in Spanish for Latino church planters. We are blessed with great Latino leaders with whom to partner!

We also seek to learn from and to partner with others who are planting Hispanic churches in North America.

Your Participation

We would love to participate with you in God’s mission and invite you to call or email us at the following telephone numbers and email addresses:

We know that God is calling both church leaders and churches to minister and participate in church planting, and we would like to join you on the journey. In the process we will discover more fully the holiness, glory and wonders of God – God’s surprises!

Posted by Gailyn V. at 12:00 PM
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