You never know…

We sow seeds, make investments, and sometimes (not always) we see the fruit of those efforts. I recently received an email from a man with some of that fruit to share. He wrote that he was a church planter who had just celebrated the one-year-anniversary of his...

A tool for coaching church planters

I received this text recently from my friend and colleague Gary Reinecke: “Quick note to tell you how helpful the Journey Together Now pathway has been with the church planters I am coaching. The genius is in the simplicity, conceptual road-map and coach-friendly...

Fuel up

One of the beauties of mountain biking is that it’s powered 100% naturally by old-fashioned muscle power: no gasoline necessary. But every form of motion requires fuel of some sort. Horses need hay, sailboats need wind. Muscles need calories and water. The best...

Don’t look at the cactus!

I love mountain biking. It’s probably my favorite pastime. Early in my mountain biking experience, I was riding at a regional park near my home. I was surprised to spot a group of cactuses up ahead and was worried about hitting them. I kept looking over at them,...

Youth as Agents of Change?

Comunidad Mosaico, a ministry I visited in Mexico City a couple of weeks ago, has launched an interesting initiative. I’ve often spoken of starting with the grassroots if you want to see real change. They’re dialed in to that reality:  they’re starting with teenagers....
Church planting networks

Church planting networks

By guest blogger Dave White Part of a week-long series In our ministry in the Philippines we’ve changed the way we conduct our training of church planters. We used to gather planers for a four-day seminar and give them enough material to take them through the whole...
The keys to growth

The keys to growth

Note: this entry is part of a week-long series with Dave White from the Philippines. Yesterday we talked about the growth and multiplication Dave White has been seeing in the church in the Philippines. I asked him what he saw as the keys to some of that growth, and...
A journey to fruitfulness

A journey to fruitfulness

I recently asked a friend and colleague about his missionary experience in the Philippines, how he came to be there, and lessons he has learned along the way. I wanted to share his responses with you over the course of this week. A journey to fruitfulness, by guest...

What you win people with, you win people to

Philip is church planter. His goal was to form house churches, and toward that end he was engaging people in an 8-week narrative study of the Bible: How does your story fit into God’s story?  The style of the study was directive teaching with some interaction. When...