Faith

I read this thought provoking statement about from Watchman Nee the other day:
"What is faith? Faith is when you are brought to the place whereby you can claim from God that something has

Cell Church Paradigm part 2

A couple of weeks ago my family and I went to Canada for a vacation and to see a Church Planting Missionary in the Toronto area.

I saw Jeff Christopherson (in the picture on the right) at the Pastor's conference last year when he spoke about their dreams for planting churches in that region. In his sermon he encouraged us to dream dreams for God. I was really impressed with the fact that I needed to nail down this dream thing that God has placed on my heart.

Through the Annie Armstrong week of prayer Jen and I were stirred up for Canada as we read of another missionary's story. He shared in his story how he would go through town after town weeping with the realization that there was no church or bible study to share the love of Christ with those people. Canada is extremely unchurched. We began to pray about the possibility of going to Canada to scout for future either mission trips or to consider the possibilities of being church planter missionaries ourselves. We usually think of going to someplace like Mexico or some other Latin American country, but was completely oblivious to the mission opportunities that lie much closer to us to the North. It was during that time that I called up the NAMB (North American Mission Board) missionaries in Canada and Jeff was one of them.

Jeff planted a cell church called "The Sanctuary." They are successfully planting reproducing churches in an area that is quite difficult for this. All of their growth comes from new converts. In fact, in the beginning they told any possible transfer Christians that they didn't want them joining. They didn't want all that baggage that they would have brought into a new congregation. They have two things that they value which are multiplication and community transformation.

Our discussion was interesting in that I got the sense that Jeff was trying to talk us out of going. I understand the wisdom of doing that because you don't want someone coming into a situation with "pie in the sky" expectations. They will bail out on you when things get a little difficult. I appreciated his candor. He shared with us the cultural differences as well. I know that if God is calling a person to something...they wont be able to let it go. Right now, I have put the whole thing on the shelf. Yet I am praying for a city in which we can sponsor such as London, Ontario. I really want to see a church planging movement happen here.

I came away with that meeting that the strength of a cell church is its ability to mentor leaders and empower them to lead. I believe that a cell church can have great impact in the U.S. if it is done right, with no short cuts.

Cell Church Paradigm part 1

I have been reading on the Cell Church Paradigm for the last several years. Recently, I have been really honing in on whether it can be effective in this part of Illinois.
Last month in June I went to a Cell Church Symposium in Waco, Texas. I went in order to get a better grasp of cell churches. There were cell pastors from all over the world with massive churches. I believe the Pastor from the Ivory Coast in North Africa had over one hundred thousand in his congregation. There were other churches with numbers such as this.
I went to the conference with one main question on my mind: "Can this be as effective in the U.S?" They had a couple of churches that were represented there that were from the southern parts of the U.S. They seemed to be growing very well. I spoke with some of the people at the conference that were involved in cell type churches in the U.S. To my dismay, most of these churches were made up of "churched" people or transplants from other churches. Needless to say, this made me suspicious of those other churches in the South that seem to have big numbers. Transfer growth to me is not real and it is not something that is shown in the outside countries
The leader of the conference Ralph Neighbor (sometimes known as the father of the Cell Church Revolution) convened this meeting with a particular focus in mind. The focus was to ask the question, "what is the Spirit saying to the end time churches." The Christian movement in the U.S. is in some serious trouble. Also, by the way things look, we will be in for some more trouble. The thing that seemed to come forward during the conference through everything spoken is that the people in the churches of the U.S. are too much alive. They need to die...American Christianity is far too comfortable to bring the move of God into our country.
As I write this I think of the stories of living sacrifices that God used like George Elliot, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, George Whitfield, George Mueller, the Moravians and others. Pastor Dion Rober of the North African church spoke about the church being both a family and an army. He would organize it like an army ready to do battle against the enemy. Every significant work for the Lord requires that we first carry our cross.
I am very comfortable in my church. We are quite comfortable. Thats the problem. I have noticed in my experience that when everyone is working and almost to the point of burn out that God grows the church. People come to Christ, workers are empowered, new leaders are trained. The devil attacks. There are fights and squabbles along the way. It is messy. We are so afraid of burning out. So we stay safe and comfortable and do what is easy. No one is reached. I don't want to be uncomfortable, but I know that if I don't get out of my comfort zone nothing will happen!

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters

This was a post that I put on another blogsite that I had...I post it here!
I was blessed the other day with some thoughts out of Ecclesiastes 11:1-6. Caution needs to be noted when we use Ecclesiastes because Solomon writes some of it from the perspective of excluding God hence the term "under the Sun" (1:3). By the time he gets to chapter 11, he is beginning to put God back into the equation.Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good. (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 NKJV)I have often wondered what the words "cast your bread upon the waters" means. I usually picture someone throwing bread out there for the birds, and seeing how the bread gets soggy. I really do not want that to come back. I learned recently what King Solomon must have had in mind when he said "cast your bread." For him bread was grain. He would send his grain out to other nations on his ships. He says to "give servings to seven and eight," signifying the sending the investment out in several ways. The nations will return with their ships of trade after they received Solomon's, thereby opening up a profitable trade relationship. He advises us not to "put all of our eggs into one basket," if something were to go wrong with that ONE ship then all would be lost.This agrees with the rest of the verses with what Solomon is trying to say. The words "you do not know" appear several times. We truly do not know which venture God will bless. In our ministry we need to diversify to allow God to bless whatever He will.I have served the Lord in ministry for 15 years and He has never told me what venture He will bless. I have had times where I have waited for things to be perfect and that never comes and so nothing happens. Beware of of sitting around waiting for God to give you what to do so that you will be guaranteed of 100% success...you will wait your life away.There are ventures that I have done that the Lord has richly blessed and there are ventures that have been dismal failures. Many would have you in these days to just focus on one spot...why? Get out there and do a variety of things for the Lord...you don't know what will produce fruit. Some will come immediately, some will not come until "after many days." If we want to reap a harvest, we need to sow our seed in the morning and not eat the bread of idleness in the evening.I will apply this to something simple like going to church. Some people go to church once a week on Sunday morning during the worship hour. What happens if the worship is bad, or the preacher is not doing well that morning? What if that person were to add another time like Sunday evening worship, Sunday School and Midweek Prayer? They can increase the rate of return by adding these to their lives. A person can increase such even more with a daily prayer time...I hope you get my meaning...I will close with a wonderful quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe on this passage:"Life is an adventure of faith, and each of us is like a merchant investing today in taht which will pay dividends tomorrow. We are like the farmer, sowing various kinds of seeds in different soils, trusting God for the harvest."