Discovery Bible Study การศึกษาพระคำภีร์

Worship: What are you thankful for this week?

อยากขอบคุณพระเจ้าอะไรในอาทิตย์นี้?

Pastoral Care: What has stressed you out this week? What do you need for things to be better?

มีอะไรที่ทำให้คุณเครียดในอาทิตย์ที่ผ่านมานี้ มีสิ่งใดที่คุณต้องการเพื่อทำให้อะไรๆดีขึ้น

Outreach: What are the needs of the people in your community, your neighbors, family, or friends?

คนในชุมชนของคุณ เพื่อนบ้าน ครอบครัวหรือเพื่อนของคุณต้องการมีความต้องการอะไร

Service: How can we help each other with the needs we talked about?

เราสามารถช่วยเหลือกันและกันในเรื่องความต้องการที่เราพูดถึงได้อย่างไร

Accountability: What did we talk about last week?

อาทิตย์ที่แล้วเราได้พูดเกี่ยวกับเรื่องอะไรบ้าง

Did you change anything in your life as a result of last week’s story?

เรื่องราวในอาทิตย์ที่แล้วได้เปลี่ยนแปลงชีวิตของคุณบ้างไหม

Did you get a chance to share the story with [the person they identified]?

คุณมีโอกาสได้แบ่งปันประสบการณ์กับ บ้างไหม

We identified several needs last week and planned to meet those needs. How did it go?

เราพูดถึงความต้องการต่างๆอาทิตย์ที่แล้ว และวางแผนที่จะสนองความต้องการนั้นๆ เป็นอย่างไรบ้างแล้ว

Discovery Bible: Let’s see what the Bible teaches us this week. Who would like to read this week’s passage?

ให้เรามาดูกันว่าเราจะเรียนอะไรจากพระคัมภีร์บ้างอาทิตย์นี้ ใครจะเป็นคนอ่านพระคำวันนี้

Practice: Will someone please retell the passage in their own words…like you are telling a friend who wasn’there today.

ใครก็ได้อธิบายพระคำตามความเข้าใจของเรา เหมือนกับเราจะเล่าให้เพื่อนของเราที่ไม่มาวันนี้ฟัง

Everyone, do you agree with their retelling? Is there something they added or left out that they shouldn’t have?

ทุกคนเห็นด้วยกับสิ่งที่เขาเล่าใหม่ไหม มีสิ่งไหนที่เสริมมา หรือถูกตัด ออกบ้างหรือเปล่า?

As long as the group doesn’t miss a key component of the passage, continue. If they miss

something, read the passage again. ตราบที่ในกลุ่มไม่ได้พลาดประเด็นสำคัญ ให้ไปต่อ ถ้าหากพลาดอะไรไป ให้อ่านพระธรรมตอนนั้นอีกครั้งหนึ่ง

If someone states something that isn’t in the passage, ask:

ถ้าบางคนกล่าวในสิ่งที่ไม่ได้อยู่ในพระธรรม ให้ถามเขา

“Where did you find [what they said] in this passage?” Please reread the passage, (if necessary)

คุณอ่านเจอข้อความนี้ที่ไหน โปรดอ่านข้อความนี้อีกครั้ง (หากจำเป็น)

What does this passage teach us about God? พระธรรมตอนนี้สอนเราเกี่ยวกับพระเจ้า ?

What does this passage teach us about humanity, about us? ข้อความนี้สอนเราอย่างไรเกี่ยว

กับมนุษย์ เกี่ยวกับตัวเรา

If we believe this passage is from God, how must we change? ถ้าเราเชื่อว่าข้อความนี้มาจาก

พระเจ้าเราจะเปลี่ยนแปลงตัวเราอย่างไร

Goal Setting and Prayer: Who are you going to share this passage with before we meet again? คุณจะแบ่ง

บันข้อความนี้กับใครบ้างก่อนที่เราจะพบกันครั้งหน้า

When do you want to meet again? คุณอยากจะพบกันอีกเมื่อไหร่

Rules for a Discovery Group: กฎของการศึกษาแบบกลุ่ม

1) The passage preaches, not any person. Stick with the passage of scripture in front of the group– no “hyperlinking” to other passages!

1. พระธรรมในพระคำภีร์เป็นผู้เทศนาสอน ไม่ใช่ผู้ใดผู้หนึ่ง ยึดพระธรรมที่มีในกลุ่ม อย่าโยงกับพระธรรมตอนอื่น

2) No individual may impose his or her “insight” on others – stick with the plain and simplest meaning of the passage in front of the group.

2. ไม่ใช่คนใดคนหนึ่งที่จะกำหนดความคิดตนเป็น ให้เน้นความหมายที่เรียบง่ายที่ให้ไว้ในกลุ่ม

3) Any individual may challenge any other individual in the group with one simple question, “Where does it say what you are saying in this passage of scripture?”

3. คนใดๆในกลุ่มอาจท้าทายคนในกลุ่มด้วยกันด้วยคำถามง่ายๆ เช่น ข้อความที่คุณพูดถึงข้อความไหนมาจากพระคำภีร์

We DISCIPLE people who are far from God INTO a relationship with Christ.

เราเป็นผู้เลี้ยงดูคนมากมายให้เข้ามามีความสัมพันธ์กับพระเยซูคริสต์

For more resources like this, contact me to join our HUB network for Thailand.  We have a special site with many new resources for practitioners.

Discovery Bible Questions used with permission from CPM Training Resources http://www.cpmtr.org/resources

Thai Language Project initiated by John Lambert

Translated by: Uma Imsuwan

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When movements are mentioned in this video recognize which large population segment has not yet been mentioned.

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If you have ever read anything about Thailand you may be led to believe that Thailand is a majority Theravada Buddhist nation.  Some would say 95%. While it is true that the majority of Thai people would claim themselves to be Buddhist, the reality is that majority are not what the Thai would call “kreng sasanna” or fully devoted to their Buddhist faith.

In fact, most Thai would have a wide variety of things that they respect, worship, or venerate in a typical day or week that would not be considered Buddhist at all.

Most of these other things have to do with “spirits” or ghosts of people who are believed to have lived before in a past time.

Daily Needs

Each of these articles of daily worship and veneration mainly have to do with one of the felt needs of:

• Good Luck
• Prosperity
• Protection

Here are a just a few of the main ones I see daily:

Nang Kwak or แม่นางกวัก – She is the patron spirit deity of all sales people and businesses and can be seen in most every business in Thailand.  You will see her sitting on a worship shelf with a glass of red liquid next to her beckoning passing potential customers to come in and make purchases.  Her “cousin” Maneki Neko is a small white Japanese cat whose paw moves its paw back and forth to beckon customers.

Pra Kruang or พระเครื่อง – These amulets contain a wide variety of images including those of past “super” monks believed to have magical powers to protect, give luck and prosperity to the people who proudly wear them .  They can costs lots of money and have been said by some to be the cause of much of the denigration of the Buddhist religion in Thailand.  Some owners show off their wealth by the number of them that are worn around their neck. Special “sacred” tattoos are said to bring the same king of protection.

Guman Thong or กุมารทอง - The main purpose of creating the “Golden Child” is for protecting the owner. It is said to be a young child ghost that will fight the owner’s enemies and protect the owner’s treasures.  I see these baby doll looking idols being fed real food daily.  They are usually surrounded by small toys and are said to be jealous of other children.  Owners refer to themselves as its “mother” or “father.” Regarding their creation, they have been tied to many diabolical practices which are said to make them more potent.

An Issue of Dependence

Ask any true Thai Theravada (Pure Land) Buddhist monk and he will tell you that the only one that we should depend on for help is ourselves.  Anything else is a crutch designed for those who are weak and will keep them from attaining true enlightenment leading to Nirvana.

Thailand is a land that is full of the supernatural.  It is place that is full of “ghosts”, “spirits”, and “deities.” Whether one who considers himself a “true Buddhist” likes it or not, these things a very real and intertwined part of daily Thai faith and practice.

So, like the rest of us, most Thai people do NOT depend only on themselves in the true practice of their faith.  They are putting their dependence and hope in something other than themselves even if only for the simple purpose of getting along better in this world.

My question then is when will they come to understand that their dependence should not be in a “thing” but rather in a “person” and that being the One who gave them life, breath, and every good thing. When will they come to know, respect, worship, and love their Creator? (I Tim 6:17, Matthew 5:45, John 15:5 etc)

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“I’m going to be one out of one hundred thousand that will reach one million for Jesus Christ by 2015.

(This means they want the total number of Christians to be 1 million by 2015.)

So this begs the question for both Thai Pastors and the missionaries sent to help them,

“How will this practically happen”?

I could spend all of my time trying to do it as one single missionary.  A Thai pastor could do the same.  This would be impossible for a whole huge denominational team, much less for one person.  Or we could choose to find ways to empower the people and influence the direction of training and practical strategy.  We could teach them to be disciples who disciple others who disciple others…

This is where I have chosen to spend the majority of time and energy.

This is not as easy task, especially when you are still working to aquire a greater fluency in the language and a deeper understanding of the culture, both of which are polar opposites of Western language and culture.

In addition, someone who is attempting to lead change in this area must also understand

1. what has already been attempted in the past and why it may have failed,
2. what is currently happening and why it may or may not be enough, and
3. what road blocks are keeping things from happening that desperately need to happen for this vision and more to come to pass.

Because of these realities on the ground, the missionary who is keen to make a difference must first take the role of learner before he can move on to be a collaborator and helper of other people’s ministries.  From this season, he can learn alot.

Some organizations designate the first two years in a country like Thailand just for language and culture study alone.  I have chosen to mix them both with practical work which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Eventually as the picture become clearer, the missionary can move on to being a consultant, an effective equipper of the local believers, and a catalyst for change in his given spheres of influence.

Whatever role he or she chooses to take, it really cannot be an effective role unless it is diligently working to provide a solution to practically empowering and equipping the 98%.

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Some interesting findings came out of the study that have impacted our focus in ministry and how we prioritize what we do.

A friend recently mentioned to me that she believed missionaries were sent to places to “win people for Jesus.”  This is true in one sense, but is also a common misconception that misses the fact that the job of winning people to Jesus doesn’t depend on an elite highly trained few, but on every single believer in Jesus, whether local or foreign.

This is especially true in an area where less than 1% of the population even claiming to believe, trust in, and follow Jesus as Savior and Lord.

As a missionary called in one of the five giftings mentioned in Ephesians Chapter 4:11, my primary role is to “equip the saints” (the whole body of believers in a given area) for the “work of the ministry.”  That means that I am not the only one, or even one of a elite group, who is expected to do the normal work required of every believer.

No, I am expected to find my place in equipping the believers and coming along side existing groups and empowering them through the gifts and teaching abilities that God has given to me.

Now as a normal every day believer myself, I am still expected to share Jesus with others in my daily life and live the things I am asking of others to do as part of the normal Christian life.  This happens whether I live oversees or not.

It just takes time to be able to effectively do it in another culture, especially where there needs to be almost a total change in the way the Gospel is shared so that it can be understandable to a Non-Western world view.

So back the the study.  Here are some key pieces of information that were found.

These statistics are based on surveys done among Thai believers about what influenced them to come to trust in and follow Jesus, not what the leaders reported, but what the people themselves said.

• Only 4 out of 100 Thai believers are actively involved in making disciples each year. (Have at least led one person to Jesus)
• Yet 70% of those who came to Christ came through the witness and influence of believing family members and friends.
• Only 24% came to Christ through the influence of a Thai Pastor; which amounts to about 5-6k people per year.
• And only 6% of people are coming to Christ each year through the influence of a missionary/evangelist, which amounts to about 1k people per year.
• Of the 339k-400k Protestant Christians of the 67 million people in Thailand, only 2% are pastors and/or missionaries.
• 98% of Thai believer are “lay leaders” as some call them.  I call them the “saints” who are waiting to be empowered and equipped.
• And over 42% of that number are from a variety of tribal backgrounds and not the “core” of Thailand.

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For 24 years I’ve been sending people on short-term missions (STMs) that challenge them to live the kind of life God dreams for them. STMs are great discipleship tools.

This year at Adventures, we’ll send out our 100,000th person on an STM. Our goal is for our STMs to activate participants to one day go and bring the hope they have to those that have none in some dark place in the world.

But moving from a short-term to a long-term focus requires a different set of tools. While Jesus sent all his disciples out on STMs (Luke 10), only a few were called to cross-cultural missions (in Acts). This may be one reason why he asked his disciples to go only to their own countrymen.

In my eagerness, I’ve made mistakes in sending people out for the long-term. Here are five:

1. Not enough screening. To be an effective long-term missionary, you’ve got to go as a learner. You learn the culture, the language and you learn people’s stories. To do this, you need a mindset and you need skills.

Sometimes in my enthusiasm to help, I’ve not spent enough time asking if candidates to go long-term had the mindset and skills they needed.

2. Not enough of a team. While some can make it on their own, most effective missionaries go as a team. Every day they have to expend emotional energy to look more like the culture they’re in than the culture of their home country. It’s the same kind of assignment Jesus had in the incarnation. Every day they are asked to exchange the things that they find normal and comfortable for a set of behaviors that are new and strange. They need a team’s encouragement to be able to make it. A team gives them the reference point to acclimate organically.

Team unity is essential if the team is to strike the right blend of encouragement and guidance for its members to choose into the transformation process day after day.

3. Not enough leadership. Good teams need good servant leadership. Leadership is especially important on the front end of a team’s time. The leader helps maintain team safety and unity and helps shape the team’s cultural assimilation process. These are her primary assignments. If the team can’t be a safe place and unity maintained, then its members will not have the emotional reserves to perform the basic missionary task of assimilating the culture.

4. Not enough preparation. In my eagerness to get teams to the field, I’ve sent them without the skills they needed to be successful. While we’re taking steps to avoid this in the future, we’re having to go back and retro-fit teams with the skills they needed: conflict resolution, cross-cultural assimilation, spiritual warfare, team-building, and self-leadership.

5. Not enough support. It takes a strong sending team to help sustain a long-term missionary. The sending team prays for them, helps them raise support, and communicates with them on the field. Too many missionaries neglect this part of the process and have inadequate covering when the pressure of life on the field inevitably comes.

Recently we have developed a model of a sending team that incorporates both Adventures staff and outside volunteers. Unfortunately, some of our earlier teams did not have a good sending team. We’re having to go back and help them recruit their sending teams.

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Chapter Thirteen:Your T4T Package: Gospel Presentation

A “bridge” can move a person’ heart to listen, but only the Gospel can save them.  Acts 2:21; 4:12; Romans 10-13-17

What is the Gospel?

The good news that Jesus Christ provided redemption for us and that we can be saved by faith in Him.

Found simply in: Luke 25:45-48, I Cor 15:1-6.

Any presentation of the Gospel must include these core truths and a call for people to respond the the message.

How is it good news to the people you are sent to?

• Animists: Jesus’ power over the spirits.
• Buddhists and Hindus: Jesus’ power to break the cycle of rebirth and bring them to heaven.
• Muslims and Jews: Jesus’ has the ability to break the futile attempt to gain salvation through good works.
• Post-Moderns: Jesus offers true eternal relevance.  He changes lives.

The Gospel is always the same, never changing.  But the way you share it varies from place to place.  (I say the Gospel is closed fist and the way we share it is open hand.)

(For us in Thailand, we have been working to share how Jesus’ is good news to the Thai person.  We have created a sample conversation video in Thai that shares the Gospel in a way that the Thai can understand it as good news.  Using a Western approach like the Four Spiritual Laws, Steps to Peace With God, and the Gospel Bridge will have little relevance for our context so the presentation needs to be tailored through repeated trial and error.)

A common factor in most CPMs is the use of ONE simple presentation and a call to commitment that any new believer can reproduce.

Biblical persuasion is calling people to respond to God’s conviction. See Acts 2:37-38, 40 and 2 Cor 5:11

People will not generally say “yes” until you call them to respond.  The most effective evangelists ASK people to follow Jesus.

Take your presentation and practice it with those you are training so that they can effortlessly share it with five people this week.

Chapter Fourteen: Your T4T Package: Discipleship

Once your people help people to come to start following Jesus, you must help them move through the discipleship process in a way that they can produce generation by generation.

Every T4T package needs a short term set of 6-10 Biblical lessons for short term discipleship that anyone can learn and pass on.  After this a process of inductive or “Discovery” Bible study will help move people into long term discipleship as “self-feeders.”

Keep it simple and easy to reproduce rather than trying to make them too theologically heavy, overly complicated, and full of too many applications to the point where your people can’t learn them and obey.

(Here in Thailand, members of our team have used a lesson format that emphasizes a baby’s needs.  They are:

1. Baby’s Born: Salvation, Baptism, Assurance
2. Baby Breathes: Prayer and the Holy Spirit
3. Baby Eats: Word of God
4. Baby Has A Family: Community/Church/ Lord’s Supper
5. Baby’s Father: Father Heart of God- Great Commandment
6. Baby Grows: Sharing Your Faith-Great Commission
7. Baby is Strong: Perseverance in Persecution

There are many creative ways to do these first few lessons.  Remember to keep them simple and easy for people to share at first)

You can find Ying Kai’s original six lessons here in English.

Some “non-negotiables” for a Short Term Package as per the author:

• Baptism: This is probably the single most important act of obedience for solidifying a profession of faith and making true disciples.
• Church: Without this lesson (usually 4-5th), groups will probably not become churches (We will know the difference later.)
• The Lord’s Supper: One of the most purifying acts of worship in a church and a movement.
• Perseverance in Persecution: Perseverance and boldness are important factors in helping a generation of believers start a new generation.
• Great Commission: This lesson reinforces the need to start successive generations.

Literate vs. Oral Learning Methods

Choose what is reproducible, not what you like.  If you choose “oral” know that it will take longer and more work to make it reproducible.  You have to spend much more time in the “practice” phase of your meeting.

Writing New Lessons: Write them in the “three thirds format.”

Long Term Discipleship Through Inductive Study

Inductive simply means that the group learns the answers together as they ask questions of the text and asks the Holy Spirit to give them understanding and application.  This helps them develop the habit of “self-feeding” and helps them to truly serve as “priests of God.”

Accountability Questions need to be

• Memorable
• Effective For Uncovering the Basic Meaning
• Emphasize Application and Obedience

“SOS”  Say, Obey, & Share

• What is this passage saying?
• What should we obey from this passage?
• Who can we share this with this week?

Start in the book of Mark (short and fast paced) or start with the “Commands of Christ”

Chapter 15: Your T4T Package: Getting To Baptism

Dismissing baptism or devaluing baptism creates a huge disservice to those professing faith.

Sure or Mature?

The author argues that delaying baptism is not a biblical approach. (this is a big issue here in Thailand).  He says that baptism is a sign that you are “sure, not mature in your faith.”  By delaying baptism we delay the means by which Jesus gave us for effecting firm commitment.

The order is “sure, then assured.”  Baptism means that you are sure in the message you heard, then you can more easily be assured you have received salvation.

Baptism Pattern in the Book of Acts

Matt 28:18-20 the command to make disciples carries with it the command for US to baptize those WE lead to faith.

Study the 10 instances of baptism in the book of Acts and ask yourself:

1. Who was baptized?
2. Who baptized them?
3. When were they baptized?
4. How and where were they baptized?

Baptism as a Profession of Faith and An Allegiance Shift.  He also mentions Baptism as a pathway to fresh boldness through the Holy Spirit’s gift of power.

Chapter 16: Your T4T Package: Forming Churches

Church Planting is not our value because it is a pragmatic way to reach people. It is our value because this was the purpose of creation- the preparation of a bride for the Son (Eph 1:23, Eph 3:21, Eph 5:17, Rev 19:78, and Rev 21:9)

Two Guidelines that Govern CPM churches are”

Biblical: The question is not, “Is this THE Biblical model?”  but rather “Is this model and its elements consistent with Scriptural teaching?”

Culturally Reproducible:  ”Is this model of church something an average new believer can start and organize?”

Read Acts 2:36-47.  This emphasizes 3 C’s of Church: Covenant, Characteristics, Caring Leaders.

The group sees itself as a church and covenants to follow Jesus together.  It has certain key characteristics found in Acts 2.  It will eventually have caring leaders.  (A Church can be a church without leadership being raised up yet.  See Acts 14:21-23)

Have a specific goal in mind when doing the lesson on church.This week will commit to becoming a church and will add in any missing characteristic of a church.

“Church Mapping” Can Help You Evaluate If You Have All of The Elements Of Church Life

• Dotted Circle = a group
• Closed Circle = a covenanted group
• # of attenders, professors, baptized written down
• Put characteristics inside the circle if they have them, outside if not yet
• Happy face inside if they have a designated leader, outside if not

No church lesson in your initial six lessons?  Then you can expect few churches will be formed!

So teach and model church from the very beginning.

Cascading generations of churches planting churches is your ultimate goal!

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While Thailand is trying to catch up with the world in regards to technology, it runs the risk of creating an even greater divide between the the “haves” and the “have nots” through its government sponsored PC tablet program.

One of the campaign promises of the current administration was that it would supply a PC tablet to every child.  Now they are working to make good on that promise by providing a basic PC tablet with educational games for various subjects including English.

I guess that if they have the money to do this then it could be considered a bold move to push Thailand forward in regards to using computers in the classroom.  Or it could be a colossal waste of resources, especially considering the immediate needs being faced after the flooding.

Thailand is place where most of the PC hard drives are manufactured in the world.  They are over 13 million Facebook users in Thailand and that number is steadily climbing.  Thailand is working hard to catch up although a majority of its citizens live in rural areas with weak or little Wifi access or availability.

I wonder what kind of affect this PC tablet program will have on the overall quality of education in Thailand?  Will the teachers be equipped to use them to help teach the children?

Or will it become another distraction to what some would say is an already distracted and failing education system?  It has been said by others working in Thailand that “entertainment” seems to be the top value, not learning.  Will this program contribute to that problem?

Is this simply another case of Thai “phak chee roy na”?

Phak Chee Roy Na: This is a saying in Thai that says if you garnish something nice enough, it will also make everything taste better!

Whatever the case may be, it would be beneficial for Thailand to take a serious look at how they could work to get basic electricity into these 2,000 schools and work on the overall quality of the content of education of its students, rather than giving everyone a shiny new PC from the government that will eventually need maintenance that most Thai families cannot afford.

The divide widens.

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First we have to look at the story that came out just a couple of days before this story.  Both the US and Israel issued a terror alert for all of its citizens living in Thailand because of intelligence of a very real and credible threat.  Other key nations began to follow suit.

But what was the story before even this one?  Thailand has just recovered from one of the worst periods of flooding in over fifty years. Almost a thousand souls perished and the Thai economy took a beating, especially in the area of tourism.  This tough period in 2011 followed a very volatile election period and civil unrest in 2010.

Tourism in Thailand is one of its largest national money makers accounting for 7% of its GDP.  Thailand is desperate to recover its foreign tourist revenue.  The nation is struggling to get back on its feet after fighting the devastating effects of the flooding for many months.

When the US and Israel issued the warning, they essentially scared off many would-be travelers.  This infuriated the Thai government who worked hard to down play the threat even though they made an arrest of a Lebanese man with connections to Hezbollah and found bomb large stashes of bomb making materials just outside of Bangkok in Samut Sakorn.

The Nation newspaper in Bangkok reported,

“Foreign Affairs spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said Thailand was disappointed the US had opted to issue its travel alert before consulting the Thai authorities.

“Despite the close monitoring [of the situation] and mutual cooperation between the two countries, the travel warning was issued with a direct impact on Thailand,” he said.

Officials would seek to form an understanding on the issue with the US, he said.”

So it is clear that Thailand was trying to keep some things just between themselves and their US government counterparts in order to minimize the impact on tourism, but the Americans were not going to stay silent when it came to protecting their citizens in Thailand.

A few days later, the Thai government issues a statement officially recognizing the State of Palestine.  Bam!

Thai police officers carried boxes of fertilizer and ammonium nitrate confiscated from a warehouse near Bangkok. Only a few of the nearly 9,000 lbs that was confiscated.

They boldly chose to declare their national support for a Palestinian State to the distain one of their key regional military allies and friends, the US, and one of their key tourist allies and friends, Israel.  Many Israelis live in and travel through Thailand over the course of a year.  Their numbers in Thailand are increasing according to some reports.

Not the smartest move the government could have made.

What was in it for Thailand?

I can only see it being a clear message to Hezbollah and other such organizations that Thailand is not their enemy.  It’s as if they are saying “Please don’t strike here.  We desperately need the tourists to keep coming and you are going to mess everything up.”  It’s as if they made the statement as a concession for peace rather than simply continuing to take a bold stand against terrorist plots on their soil and standing even stronger for the protection of their Western guests.  Could it also be a stab at the US and Israel for issuing the warning without their ok?

I don’t blame our leaders for trying to keep Hezbollah away from Thailand, but I don’t think making this statement did anything to help them.  In fact, it only angered two of their best friends who were simply trying to protect their citizens living abroad from a very real and credible threat.

They would do better to work on clamping down on the reasons that international terrorists and criminals consider Thailand a great place to work!  In a recent article, Thailand’s Nation Newspaper pointed this out clearly by saying,

“It is an open secret that Thailand is a haven for terrorists as well as transnational criminal groups. For decades, they have been using the country as a center to procure illegal materials (arms, drugs or banned chemical and explosive substances), laundry money, forging foreign currencies and travelling documents. Given its centrality in the continental Southeast Asia with nearly one-thousand flights daily in operation, Thailand remains “the” ideal logistic hub for terrorist operations elsewhere. Still, the concerned Thai authorities are not up to the task.”

Given this reality, Thailand needs to understand that America will “speak straight” and not hide critical warnings from its citizens when it discovers a real and credible imminent threat.  It also needs to understand that America is a key ally of the state of Israel and has said that it cannot recognize a Palestinian state as long as it refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and protect itself.

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Chapter 9:  ”Starting New Generations, Not Just Multiplying Groups”

T4T is different than traditional small group multiplication.  Instead of grow THEN multiply, it is launch and repeat.  You don’t wait for a new group to grow before launching new groups out of it.

These new groups become their own house churches or sometimes new small groups under the Lordship of Christ in a larger existing church.

Every new believer is potentially a new group.

The trainee may lead his family and friends to faith and incorporate them into his group.  At the same time, he is training them to be a witness to their circle of influence and launch new groups with them.

People you are training should not bring new believers to the original group but rather start a new group with them.  If they do, you must take steps to get them pointed back in the right direction.  If a new believer comes into the group, you should stay with the original lesson, but also be willing to stay after with the new believer and go through lesson one.

Generations of Groups

The author points out that the goal is get consistent 4^th generation groups and for a CPM to emerge.  (How often do we lose sight of this or do not ever have it as something we are aiming for?  I would say more often than not.  This maybe why we don’t yet see CPM emerging in our own contexts though we have trained on it.)

He reminds us that not all will start a new group.  Some will be attenders, some witnesses, some starters of groups, and some trainers of trainers who have caught on to the concept of training trainers.

Messiness: Groups or Churches?

The author quotes Proverbs 14:4  “Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much revenue comes by the strength of an ox.”

You can’t have growth without the mess.  Problems are a sign of growth.

CPM’s are messier than neat orderly organizational chart, but also much more exciting! (This will be something we will have to make as a personal value if we value strict organization versus a messy life on life.  I would rather have to control some wild fire rather than raise the dead.  I would rather the noise of the nursery rather than the peace and tranquility of the cemetery.  How about you?)

Groups or Churches?

Ideally in T4T each group is designed to become a house church

(In a place where only 1-2% of less of the population are believers, house churches are a necessity.  They are truly life lines for those who are still waiting to hear.  There is little other choice unless we are wanting to only build churches (buildings) based on our local economy.  Until then, church planters should not be waiting and praying for outside funds to come in before they plant!)

Ying Kai was working with an “officially registered church” in a closed nation.  Because of the restrictions they chose to call their groups “official Bible studies” of the main church.

The point is not to get overly concerned about what you call your groups, but understand that a key breakthrough would be for each group to function as a local church, baptizing their new believers, doing communion together, giving offerings, etc.

Pastors could view themselves as pastors of a large church or with T4T they could view themselves as Pastors of Pastors and their church as the training base for a movement!

Taking a Risk

The author tackles the issues of whether CPM’s are risky.  He says that they are absolutely risky, but points out that every other type of church planting  inherently has its own sets of risk and challenges.  (Especially among an unreached people group where millions are still waiting for the Gospel and a church within reach of their community, the challenges of CPM far outweigh the alternative of maintaining the painfully slow processes we have been operating under.)

He talks about the principle of the NT in “commending” new believers to the Lord. This has to do with addressing the fact that initiators of groups do not stay with the groups forever, but entrusts them to the Holy Spirit.  (One leader of a house church network in Laos told me that he had to do the same thing because his house churches were so spread out over the country and communication was very difficult.)

A Key and Important Step For All Leaders Working For CPM:

The author points out a key for all leaders, he says, “Giving up personal control and management of all the believers and the groups is an important step for any leader who longs to see a Church Planting Movement develop.  This is the only way to launch new generations of churches rather than gradually grow and multiply groups in an orderly system.”

Biblical Precedent: Life on Life Fluidity

This is described as tearful, heart-felt interaction, challenge and encouragement toward a movement of God.  AKA: Training with Tears.  Not sterile classroom training, but real life.  More like a sports locker room than a classroom!

The author goes through the ins and outs of Paul’s work in Acts 19 as the main example.

He points out that movements are “counterintuitive.”  (This is a key word for us to understand.)

We launch and repeat, but that doesn’t mean we drop the groups.  We still guide and shape through our influence rather than seeking to control.

Chapter Ten: Mentoring a Movement

Launching of a space craft as an example.  After launch, mission control doesn’t drop the astronauts.  Instead it monitors, gives feedback, and sometimes instructions to change course all the way through the journey.

In 8-10 years of Paul’s three missionary journeys, it appears that 6-7 CPM’s developed.  They were:

• Cyprus
• Phrygia
• Galatia
• Macedonia
• Achaia
• Asia
• Possibly Illyricum.

Paul was in mission control launching new work all over the province. (I would also say that he was not just in mission control, but in the booster rockers too!  He was not removed and pushing buttons like and arm chair controller.  He was on the ground modeling, assisting, watching them do what he did, and leaving when they time came.)

How long should I stay with a group?

(I think this is a key question!  I think many missionaries have trained groups in CPM in 3-5 day seminars or even a week or 10 day trainings, but was that enough?  Was there something missing in their approach?  Maybe they did a decent job casting vision, but they didn’t do what was needed to see a movement start.  They dropped the trainees and moved on way too soon.)

The answer to “how long should I stay with my group”? is “What’s your goal”?  If you remember your goal then you will find your answer.

The Goal is: Multiplying generations of trainers and churches- at least four generations and beyond.  (All new CPM trainers should focus on this goal and make it a standard throughout all new CPM training.  Until I read this book, I did not understand this as the goal.  Many talk of CPM, but don’t really have a target they are shooting for.)

9-18 months As A Time Frame

The author points out that it may be necessary to stay with your initial group 9-18 months.

(This assumes a few key things I should point out: Your groups are still willing to implement what you have been teaching them.  You have 9-18 months as a trainer to invest in getting things off the ground.  For missionaries, this means that you are not doing a lot of traveling or going home on furlough during this time.  If you go home to your passport country every year, yet you are wanting to catalyze a CPM, you may never get off the ground.  This is something each person has to look deeply into for themselves.  Disseminating information through a seminar or conference to a local church is not enough.  This may be a reason why so many say to you, “Been there, tried that, didn’t work” when you try to vision cast for CPM!)

The author breaks down what it looks like to move from one generation to another.  The group you begin to train (those who are existing believers) are called G-0, not Generation One.

Each generation should be starting new groups.

Steve Smith says that one of the reasons we don’t get CPM is because we aren’t tracking results by key indicators.  They are:

• #Consistent 4^th Gen believers
• #Baptisms
• # Groups
• # Churches

Until these indicators are tracked to 4^th generation and beyond consistently, you may have growth, but you don’t yet have a church planting movement.  (This is key for all trainers to know and understand.)

Celebrating Second Generation As a Key Marker For Our Asia Context:

I would say that for us who are just starting out that moving from G-0 to G-1, then from G-1 to G-2 should be a huge celebration time!)

Another reason for staying at least 12-18 months with each initial group is to give enough time to develop solid leaders through on the job leadership development.  This comes through the format of the “three-thirds” group format.

He gives examples from Paul’s ministry how he raised up leaders from within the harvest itself out of his three journeys.

Part Three: the Application of T4T

Chapter Eleven: Your T4T Package: Vision Casting

Some of the reasons T4T doesn’t work even though it should:

• We don’t understand the nuances and stages of T4T, hence the need for the book!
• We modify it too much and lose the processes that move us through the key stages of a CPM.
• We fail to train our trainers to know what to do at each stage when people say “yes.”

He mentions a CPM package and what it needs to include:

• Mobilizing the believers
• Finding persons of peace
• Evangelism
• Discipleship
• Church Formation
• Leadership Development
• That ANY believer can do!

Casting vision for both “being” and “doing” is important.

Key insight for cross cultural workers:

He mentions an in-house survey of the most fruitful missionaries in one part of Asia taken from 2007-2008.

1. The most important characteristic was NOT evangelism or church planting, but rather the ability to cast vision to local believers and move them onto a Kingdom agenda toward CPM.
2. In another survey of nine urban CPMs, the majority of their results, some up to 95%, came through believers they mobilized and trained and nor from people they had personally won to the Lord.
3. In 2010 a research group studied over 100 CPM focused teams in Southeast Asia. Teams that had relationships with existing national believers were 90% more likely to be effective in baptisms, starting new groups, and starting new churches than teams that did not.”  (This is a key stat especially for Thailand where a recent study by Dr. M. Visser showed that over 70% of new believers in Thailand came not through a missionary or Pastor but through the influence of a friend or relative who was already a believer.)

A High Value CPM Activity

Therefore the author points out that mobilizing (casting vision then training) is not a time waster but a HIGH VALUE activity in initiating a CPM in your own context.  (For me personally, this falls right in line with something I felt God speaking to me over ten years ago when he told me that my ministry would be characterized by two words: “catalyst” and “strategic.”  This was before I knew anything about what that might mean in regards to missions work.)

Mobilization

He gives an acronym we can use to mobilize: R.E.L.A.T.E

• R-Relationship: Getting to know people in a life giving way.  Not manipulating. Drinking lots of coffee or tea together.
• E-Evaluate the Status: Ask people how they are doing in regards to fulfilling the vision. (Here in Thailand all churches are focused on the 2015 vision.  This can be a great bridge.)  Then you may ask, “If you could find a biblical long lasting way to get there faster would you be interested”?  (T4T also answers the questions of “how”?)
• L-Lay Out God’s Vision: You could share a 3 minute story that highlights what you feel like God may be saying and doing in your local contexts.  ( I personally love fresh stories that highlight how God is already at work and how he is waiting on us.  Luke 10:2 is a favorite verse.)
• A-Ask Them To Commit To the Next Step: Conviction does not equal obedience.  You don’t know who is willing until you give them something to commit to.
• T-Trial Group: Give me 10-20 believers, not leaders or those who are responsible for ministries.  Let’s train them together in T4T for six months.  At the end, you can evaluate and keep going, give us more time, or call it off.

Train everyone you can, but if you can only get 10-20 believers, pick those who have the least responsibilities and the least maturity!  The most fruitful trainers tend to be “ordinary, more recent believers and not current ministry leaders.”  (This is what we have found as well especially with a case study that was recently done here in Thailand)

It is important for ministry leaders to endorse CPM but they are usually not the most effective in being “doers.”  Most are already overcommitted, have ingrained ministry patterns already, less open to new ideas, are already vested in the original system, and don’t know many lost people.

(The key things that will be needed by these leaders is the ability to flow with the principles CPM’s operate by including the willingness for things to get messy sometimes, for things to be out of control at other times, and for people they would have never chosen for leadership choosing themselves as leaders, not through knowledge but fruitfulness that comes from obeying the Holy Spirit’s direction.  They have to be people of passion, compassion, and heart for those who are perishing without Jesus.  They have taken personal responsibility to be an “equipper of the saints” and a releaser of ministry rather than a personal kingdom builder and spiritual politician.)

Don’t be discouraged, Ying Kai had to cast vision to dozens of near culture partners in order to find the few who would commit.  If you don’t find partners, you can and should still pioneer to find workers from within the harvest itself.

Once you have your first group, you start by teaching session one: Why, Whom, How.

Chapter 12: Your T4T Package: Gospel Bridges

First session, your “three thirds meeting” should be:

• Why?- Great Commission vision- Go, All, Trainers (Disciples)
• Whom?- Prayerfully write down people’s names.  Talk with strangers too. 5x /week
• How?- Culturally sensitive presentation of the Good News with Power!

Cast the seed widely!  Share the Gospel then build relationships.  Shift for person’s of peace through sharing the Gospel widely.  Bridge into Gospel conversations quickly- within 5 minutes identify yourself. (Identiy is a big issue in this part of the world!  Who are you? Is a big question to answer.  Even bigger is “Who are you to me”?  Identity of every believer should be a “a person of power.” I John 4:4)

Bridges- help you move from normal conversations to spiritual ones.  The most classic bridge is your own personal testimony in 1-2 minutes.  It may be all you need.

• Healing the Sick and Praying for Miracles
• Any 3: Anyone, Anywhere, Any Time.
• (Local religious stories, idioms, sayings)

Any 3:

• What religion do you follow? (Becoming a learner)
• Move toward understanding need. (Scratching where it itches, not where we think he should)
• Get to the Good News.  (It must make sense in their context to be really Good News)

Keep It Simple

Use just one bridge method that everyone can remember.  Keep it very simple!  We could be so good at it that when we teach it to others we give them too much and they feel that they can never live up to your example.

(Finding the best bridge in your own context may take lots of trial and error, but this is where the rubber meets the road.  It is where mere theory meets real life experiences on the ground.  Once you find one that hits to spot, stay with it and teach it to everyone you train.)

Stay tuned for more…

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Chapter 5: “How To Begin”

T4T is a process, not a set of lessons (The author drives this home!)

He says it is often misunderstood as a set of lessons or an outreach, but he says it is meant to cascade as a church planting movement, generation by generation.  Each challenge faced at each new stage in the process is still part of the T4T process.

Many learned that Ying Kai:

• Had 6 initial lessons
• Encouraged new believers to witness 5x per week
• Had frequent training retreats for leaders
• Used inductive Bible studies after the first initial lessons

But those same folks didn’t understand that T4T is an “all-in-one-process” that God uses to take a person from lostness to maturing disciples who can start new groups and train others to reproduce the process.  They just copied parts and were not successful.

What has T4T done?   Basically it has tied all of the basic parts of a CPM plan together well and enabled believers to naturally progress from one stage to another as they are trained: evangelism, discipleship, church planting, leadership development-repeating the process generation by generation.

Measuring Rod For CPM:  When groups consistently reach 4^th generation with new churches formed in several places over a short period of time, then a sustained CPM has emerged. (One trainer, David Watson, says 200 churches in less than two years with at least 4 generations)

Lesson Content: This is the most adaptable part of T4T.  Many have adapted the content for their own context.

Everyone is taught that true disciples are those who are followers of Jesus and fishers of men.

The word “trainer” was used by Ying Kai because disciple had lost its meaning.  He wanted to emphasize the disciples as trainer because it carries on the idea of passing on what one receives.

Most questions faced in the process are said to be answered by simply remembering the goal: To build multiplying generations of trainers (disciples).  It is a 2 Tim 2:2 process.

The First Session of T4T

• Find new or existing believers to train
• Cast vision to many groups to find the few who will both say and do “yes.”
• Teach “Why-Whom-How”
• Teach them how to share the Gospel using two things:
•             A Bridge
•             Simple Gospel Presentation

A Bridge is a way to start a transition in a conversation to spiritual matters.  It is usually a person’s 2-3 minute personal story of coming to Christ or how God helped them overcome a problem or difficulty in life.

• Have the group write it down and practice telling it with one another
•             Remove “churchy” words that don’t make sense to a non believer
•             Encourage them to give feedback to one another- Is it boring?

Once confident in their testimonies, move on to sharing the Gospel presentation.

The goal of a testimony is to move someone’s heart to listen to the Gospel but it is not the Gospel itself.  (Present the Good News especially in a way that can be understood by the culture as good news!)

Ying’s presentation of the Gospel comes in the form of a lesson called “Assurance of Salvation.”  You can adapt this to any presentation you like.  (We would use a more context sensitive approach.)

• Have them practice the lessons in pairs again.
• Send them out by praying and commissioning them, encourage them to pray for the sick as well!
• Encourage them to repeat lesson one with those who believe- why-whom-how

Key point Smith makes is that everyone commits to being a “follower of Jesus and a fisher of men” including the one leading the group (could be us!).  (We must be an example of what we are teaching!)

The fastest way to keep the group from becoming a movement is by failing to ask them about the assignment that God gave them.  See Hebrews 10:24-25

Three Thirds Pattern for Weekly Meetings is mentioned

1^st Third is Pastoral Care, Worship, Loving Accountability, and Vision Casting

2^nd Third is the New Lesson or Inductive Study of the Bible

Last Third is Practicing the Lesson, Setting Goals, and Praying for One Another

Smith encourages the reader to ensure that the trainer walk through the first lesson with a new believer within minutes of them believing the message.

Chapter 6: Building A Movement Through The 20%

Smith gives us a dose of reality saying, “Not everyone we train will become fruitful or a trainer of trainers.”  He lists four types of people in your groups:

1. Attenders
2. Witnesses (Which could include “superspreaders”
3. Starters or “Workers”
4. Trainers

Only 15-20 % of those you train will lead others to faith, start groups, and train new believers to witness and train others.

The principle of only a FEW bearing multiplying fruit is critical for you to understand in CPM.  Invest more of your time in fruitful soil people.

Starters (of groups) are great, but planting new churches is not enough because our end vision demands more.  (The end vision is driven by the reality, especially for our context, that 99% don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior!)

The starter’s goal is to start a group (a church) but the trainer’s goal is to start a movement!

Steve Smith then asks these key questions,

• “How many genuine trainers of trainers do you feel you need for a movement to start?
• If only 20% become trainers, how many do you probably have to start training to find this many trainers?
• If only 20% become trainers of trainers and you only train 3-4 people, what is the likelihood you will see a movement start?

He says, “Don’t try to predict just train! People we think will be the most fruitful are usually not and the people we think may never succeed at all are most fruitful.”

Building a Movement

Fill your schedule with training-This is the highest value activity of CPMs (those who are believers and those who you find from within the harvest itself!)

1. Cast vision to existing believers
2. If none, sow widely to win the first believers to train
3. Mobilize short term teams- outsiders or nationals- to hunt for your first persons of peace.

CPM Lifestyle: Pray, Witness to the Lost, Train the Saved (You must train hundreds!)

Leading By Example

Ying Kai and his wife (empty nesters) trained an average of three times a day for two hours at a time, morning, afternoon, and evening for 6-7 days a week!  Groups ranged from 2-hundreds but averaged no more than 20.

Key Question: How many 2-3 hour time slots can you really free up if you tried?  (If you weren’t training during this time, you could be prayer-walking two by two and hunting persons of peace)

The Power of Two Groups- Encouraging trainers to start at least two groups makes a big difference in momentum.

Chapter 7: The Three Thirds Process

This is called the core process that enables believers to gain confidence and competence.  If you miss this, you may end up giving people good evangelism and discipleship training only!

First Third: Looking Back

• Pastoral Care- How are you doing?  I Cor 14:26 potential
• Worship- Could simply be reading a psalm or giving of thanks
• Accountability- Asking the right questions in a loving way
• (Chief Trap: Never give an assignment or goal unless you plan to ask about it at the next meeting.)
• Vision Casting- This is a way of life.  Testimonies, Stories.

Second Third: Looking Up

• Not just emphasizing learning but obedience
• The goal it to give them enough content to obey.  The biggest mistake is too much content..  Remember the goal is multiplying generations of trainers.
• Leave time to practice

Final Third: Looking Ahead

• The goal is giving your trainers confidence and competence.  (We as master trainers need this as well!)
• Set Goals and Pray- Hear from God as it relates to sharing and starting groups, share what you are going to do, and pray for each person and commission them.

Chapter 8: The Bold Parts

Out of the parts of each meeting you have which are the parts that get you to reproduction?  There are four:

• Accountability
• Vision Casting
• Practice
• Set Goals
• Pray

1. Accountability is the key component if its done right in a loving way.
2. Vision casting keeps God’s heart and vision before the people.
3. Practice provides a time to build confidence and competence.
4. Setting goals and prayer takes time to listen to God and share it with others.

When Pressed For Time- We tend to leave the bold parts out.  It may be because we are uncomfortable or have a different goal such as just getting through the content, or having an awesome encounter with one another, or awesome worship time but not multiplying a generation of trainers.

Take the bold parts out and what do you have?  A Bible study, cell, or Sunday school group.

We default to what we know best (intuitive) and what we know does not spark a CPM (counterintuitive)

If you are pressed for time, shorten each part or the lesson itself, but don’t leave the bold parts out!

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Chapter 1: “Kingdom Come!”

This chapter starts with some impressive stats.  Since its inception in 2001, the CPM initiated by Ying Kai has yielded a conservative number of:

• 1.7 million baptisms
• 150,000 new church starts
• 2,000 new churches started each month in places from high rises to factories

T4T is said to be influencing missions efforts throughout the world.

Steve Smith is introduced as a CPM Trainer and Ying Kai is introduced as the father of T4T.

It is said of T4T that it is about:

• Cooperating with God to see CPMs
• The Development of a CPM plan
• God’s vision for a MOVEMENT
• Majoring on practical ministry

The question that arises in Chapter One is, “What are Churches”?  Steve says in a footnote,

I will define this more later, but these are Acts 2 type churches that display the basic covenant and characteristics of that Acts 2 community whether they meet in homes or in dedicated buildings. Usually I am implying house churches or church-like small groups of a larger worshiping community.

Ying Kai had an end vision of 200 churches in his CPM plan.  He reached that in three months!  These groups were meeting in homes, parks, and factories.

Based on conservative reporting, researchers found 18 generations in this movement in only 4-5 years.

T4T is called “Training for Trainers” because Ying Kai expected every disciple to train others.

Steve Smith’s work was among a poor, uneducated, and remote people.  He used local partners and trained them.

He told them to make a plan on how 80 churches could reach 5,000 villages in five years or less.

T4T emphasizes principles and practices that each of these men operated under.

Chapter Two: It’s Happening Again!

This chapter outlines many scriptures from the move of God that happened in the book of Acts.  From the examples, the authors desire for us to see T4T as not a new movement but rather a ReRevolution of Discipleship that was seen in Acts.

We then learn the story of Ying Kai-

• He is the son of a successful church planter and Pastor from Taiwan.
• Ying was successful in his own right.
• While in Hong Kong, he planted one new church each year.
• He and his wife believed that they could personally lead 60-80 people to Jesus each year.
• But they asked themselves what was that compared to the great need before them.

In the year 2000 he sat in a CPM training staring at a poster that read, “How many of my people will hear the Gospel today among my people”? (This was a turning point moment)

From Matthew 28:19-20, he sensed the Lord giving him some key insights:

• Go, not come.
• Everyone, not just some.
• Make trainers, not just church members

He and his wife (no kids in the family) started by training 20-30 groups over a given week then moved them to meeting every other week so that he was training 40-60 groups every two weeks.  (Hard worker!)

We are told that “T4T is an all inclusive process of training believers over 12-18 months.”

Steve Smith says, “I was learning that the shape of my ministry had to be dictated by the end vision, not by what we enjoyed doing or what brought personal fulfillment.” (I think this is a challenging statement for missionaries today.)

Steve Smith labored for almost three and a half years with almost no fruit.  Then he had a breakthrough of 25 new churches in extremely remote villages.  The next year they had 80.  The next year they had 176 despite fierce persecution.

People were simply taught:

• Follow Jesus
• Fish For Men
• Train Others To Do the Same

Smith mentions a convening of urban CPM practicioners.  The  requirement to come was that they had at least 100 churches who were at third generation or more.  All nine that were able to come had three things in common: They had been trained in T4T, adapted it to their local context, and were training believers in the process.

T4T is nor a magic solution but a clear process that effectively applies Kingdom principles that too often get neglected such as:

• Mobilizing existing believers
• Teaching them to witness as a lifestyle
• Discipling them to lovingly obey Jesus
• Starting new groups or churches (usually both)
• Developing maturing leaders quickly
• Cascading into multiple generations
• Equipping missionaries to model and leave once things have taken root.

T4T is not a set of lessons or a six week outreach.

Chapter Three: The T4T Story

Ying Kai’s father planted 28 churches in 28 years! (Ying had seen some of the best that one model could do in a lifetime)

We learn more about Ying Kai

• In 1994, Ying became a missionary to Hong Kong.
• He had to learn Cantonese because his mother tongue is Mandarin.
• While there his assignment was to plant one new church every five years.
• In 96 he started his first one.  The 2^nd year he started his 2^nd and so on.
• In 99 he went back to the US for a visit, when he returned he was told he wasn’t need in HK anymore.
• In 2000 he was asked by a businessman to start a church in his home country.  The man owned a factory there.  He visited and saw many open doors there.

Strategy Coordinator term is introduced: “a person who oversees a CPM strategy to reach a people group or a city.”

He attended a four week training on CPM strategy but didn’t know what to do so he says he “prayed, and prayed, and prayed.” He later says he was on his knees often. (This is a key!!)

He started with an official registered church of his nation.  He told the leader, “I will teach your people a fast way to share the Gospel.”

Why Don’t Christians Share?  They don’t know: “why, whom, and how.”  Ying explains this critical teaching.

With this group from the registered church, he started in November of 2000-

• after 3 months there were 27 small groups
• over 200 had come to believe in Jesus.
• In 2001 that group of 30 intial people had catalyzed 906 small groups,
• taking the Gospel to 17 different towns,
• making 10,000 new believers!

Chapter Four: Why It’s Working

Steve Smith says that T4T is a return to basic Biblical principles.  He gives many scriptures.  He talks about Jesus as King and that the King’s ways are counterintuitive.

He says that we need to “surrender and cooperate with the Holy Spirit” in order to see a movement.

This section launches into key parables told by Jesus in order to illustrate some key points taught in T4T.   They are:

1. The Sower and the Soils- There are always four types of responses to the Gospel message.
2. Treasure Hidden in a Field and the Pearl of Great Price- We must help people discover the value of the King!
3. The Tares or Weeds- Don’t be surprised when some fall away.
4. Seed Growing Quietly & The Mustard Seed- It’s critical that we get the beginnings right.  T4T focuses on initial expectations of the new disciple.  They are taught immediately to think of others around them after their conversion.
5. The Two Sons-Obedience is the mark of a true disciple not knowledge.
6. The Scribe in the Kingdom- Kingdom multipliers could be former “scribes and Pharisees.”
7. The Spirit As Attacker & Teacher- We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  We cannot make the wind blow, but we can be ready by having our sails raised when it does!  T4T is a process that raises the types of ministry sails that can move with the blowing of God’s Spirit.  T4T also helps us “sniff out” persons of peace.

Other areas covered are:

• What it means to be a post-Pentecost people as it relates to discipleship.  He makes some really good points on this.
• “Obedience based versus knowledge based” maturity
• Maturity Progression: “Believe-Serve-Mature” vs. “Believe-Mature-Serve”
• Can T4T work for where I am?
• All fields don’t yield the same harvest but all fields are harvestable.

Finally we are encouraged strongly to “adapt the tool (T4T), but not to violate the Kingdom principles.”

In a foot note, Smith makes a keen observation. “Virtually every CPM that I have ever studied has included significant mobilization and training of existing national believers- same culture or near culture to the target people group.”

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Background

In the world of missions, a new wave of the Spirit of God is moving across nations and people planting churches where there were little to none before.  This phenomenon has been called “Church Planting Movements” or “Church Multiplication Movements.”

In the book T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution, missionary practitioners Ying Kai and Steve Smith seek to lay out the principles and background involved in one of the most explosive examples of “CPM” in modern history.

This book was born out of a growing hunger for missionary practitioners to understand the movement and how they can prepare themselves in their own contexts for a new move of God’s Spirit by implementing the key principles laid out in the book.

Asian Born

It carefully documents the work of an Asian couple (the Kais) working in an Asian context.  Contrary to some thought, it is not another Western import or new method.

After reading this book, I can confidently say that for the serious missionary practitioner this may be “the most important book you’ve not yet heard of.”

Among the global missionary community and those who have heard the term “CPM” there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding as to what the term really means.  A “CPM” is not a method or a strategy, but simply an observation of the phenomena of rapidly multiplying churches among a people group.  

Many of these people groups where a CPM can be found are considered unreached which means that they have 2% of the population or less as believers.

In the recent past, CPM’s have been studied by missionary strategists such as David Garrison who wrote his first observations on the phenomena in his booklet “Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World. (1999/2003).  Of the CPM’s he has studied, he lists out 10 universal elements of a CPM.

But concerning the CPM Ying Kai initiated and the principles he lays out in Training for Trainers (T4T), Garrison writes,

“None has earned the title “CPM Best Practice” than the remarkable T4T that has exploded across a closed and crowded country in Asia.”

That is a pretty strong endorsement from a man who knows.

In the following days, I will attempt to do a chapter-by-chapter review of this important book and lay out some of the key principles and ideas I have found in each.  Each post will contain about four chapters or so and I will post them as soon as I am able.

Even if you are not a cross cultural missionary, I believe you will find some key principles in this book that will be beneficial for you in your own context.  

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He speaks of entrepreneurs being risk takers who are focused on getting rapid scalable change.

By definition he says that they do “more than anyone thinks possible, with less than anyone thinks possible.”  

He contrasts what entrepreneurs (and missionaries) could be like; mercenaries.

In this video he shows a comparison list that basically says that missionaries are known for

• Passion
• Strategy
• The Big Idea
• Partnership
• Meaning

He says that they are strategic versus being opportunistic.

They live by their values versus living by their financial statements.

He says, “they know that this business of innovating takes a long time.  They look at it as more of a marathon than a sprint.”

I like his view of missionaries.

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A Time To Work

I was talking with my friend the other day about what Christmas was like for him growing up.  He is from the island of Samoa.  He told me that since he was a boy Christmas was always a season of outreach and work.  It was only after he married an American girl that he understood Christmas to be a time for family, rest, and worship.

On his island, missionaries worked to share the Christmas story with those who had never heard.  They brought, not only the Gospel of Jesus, but also their Western holidays with them.  So it only followed that the new believers would follow that same customs.  I’m sure the missionaries thought to themselves, “how can we simply spend time with our families sharing in our own custom when there are so many who still haven’t heard the message of Jesus”?  Everywhere they looked they must have been reminded of the need.

So the Christmas season became an intense time of getting the message out to those who had never heard.

A similar scenario plays out here in Thailand.  

Although some churches celebrate through special services and meals together, the Christmas season has become the main season of yearly outreach for Thai Christian churches. Since a “consumer oriented Christmas” can be found in many places of the world where capitalism is alive and well, the Thai believers use the opportunity to bring the message of Jesus’ birth to their own people.

A Time To Have Fun

One of the largest mall chains in Thailand is the Central Plaza.  It was told to me that one of the principle owners is a Thai Christian.  So in most major cities in Thailand, you can walk into one of these malls and see a huge decorated Christmas tree, lights, and even hear popular Christmas music, even worship music, playing in English.  Christmas is in vogue here in Thailand.  However it is easy for the message to be crowded out and lost, even more than it already is in the Western world.

For the majority of Thai people the holiday will come and go without any special recognition or fanfare.  In their minds, if they know of the holiday at all, it is a Western holiday with snow (never seen in Thailand) and a bearded fat guy in a red suit.  It is seen as fun and anything celebratory and fun could go over well in Thai culture!

For me, this brings up the question of how we are communicating within a certain context.

Many times the Thai believers do what they have learned from those who brought the Gospel to them without much thought of how they are communicating or if their message is connecting to the heart and mind of the Thai culture.

Christmas and Contextualization

What many don’t realize is that Christmas is a “contextualized” holiday.  That means it came about through interaction with the local culture and customs of the people.  The Bible’s message was fit into the local “context.”

Santa Claus is Coming To Town...

“Christmas” is the mainly the work of missionaries who sought to reinfuse the winter solstice celebrations of European pagans with new meaning.  

They found elements in the cultures of their adopted nations and built bridges of new understanding by emphasizing certain Biblical stories that fit within the celebrations that were already taking place.

Others came along and added their own stories and traditions until it has morphed into what it is today.

The historical story of the birth of Jesus Christ and its relevance to us is no doubt an very important one.  

But as missionaries, is it our job to encourage believers to emphasize and continue traditions that were contextualized for the Western world or to help people look into their own cultures and find what people are already celebrating then find the bridges of God, within their own worldview?

I believe our primary role is the latter.  

Can we stop what we has already been done?  Probably not.  But can we help the Thai believers think through how they can find the holidays that the mass of their people are already celebrating and help infuse them with new life and meaning.

I believe we can and should.  

This process of contextualization is how Christmas became known as a special time where a big part of the Western world remembers that “a Saviour was born who is Christ the Lord.”  Although, it was never mandated by God emphatically for us to celebrate the birth of his Son. There are so many things we could celebrate from a Biblical point of view.

Should we as Westerners celebrate? Yes, and we do!  Can Thai people celebrate too? Of course.  It’s a personal choice.  We enjoy the season and we take full advantage of the work of the missionaries who went before us.  We use the opportunity to share the story of Jesus.

But I long for the day when Christ will be celebrated through the world-views and seasons of the Southeast Asian world.  

What Bible stories are yet to have been dramatized and told?  Like the Christmas tree, lights, candy canes, carols, and gift giving; what Thai traditions have yet to be made that will point to the Saviour?

If we don’t allow experimentation, new expression, and lead by example, in much the same way that our forefathers did with Christmas, then we may never know.  And the church in Thailand may continue to look as “foreign” as it has for the last century.

To read my thought on one such important Thai holiday, Loi Krathong, click here.

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My goal in training for the most part is to help get people mobilized to fulfill their callings as well as play their part in God’s purpose for their generation.  I try to accomplish this by helping shift some key paradigms and mindsets.

I wanted to take a moment to share the general outline I use.

I believe it could be helpful in your own context as you seek to take people further in their walk with God.

The 5 “E”‘s, are tools which I use to guide me during teaching.

They are:

• Engage- We must first understand that there is a problem.  What are the problems in your local context?  How can you build your case so that others can join you? We must “engage” the issues involved and be convinced of the problem from God’s perspective. Most “change-agents” fail in their goal because they spent most of their time talking about solutions when they have not taken the proper time to convince their audience of the problem.  Therefore their audience is not engaged.  The problem has not yet become personal.

• Empower- We must understand that we are a part of the solution.  It is very easy to think that others are the solution and hope that they will hear from God about what needs to be done.  But God has called each of his children to be “priests” unto him.  The doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers” is often neglected in many circles. After Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, each believer now has direct access to God and the Holy Spirit gives each one everything we need.  Now there is an anointing that abides in each of us.
  

• Equip- In order to be effective, we must be properly equipped.  That is why we exist as leaders, to equip you.  When Jesus gave leadership to the church, he gave it in the form of a variety of five types of elders (Eph 4:11-12).  The role of these elders is to equip the saints (the army of the average every day yet supernatural people of God) to do the works that God has prepared for each of them to do.  This leadership gives the tools for the job and empowers, not from the top down, but from the bottom up as the servants of all.  Each of these five elders gives a much needed “flavor” and emphasis to the people of God that should come straight from the Head, Jesus.

• Expand- It is God’s will for us to be fruitful and multiply.  We are called not only to be learners, but to obey what we already know. Part of being a believer is always being ready to be stretched in your thinking and in your capacity for the glory of God and for the sake of others.  We make choices out of the freedom we have in the Gospel that may not be convenient for us.  When we are challenged and stretched by God in certain ways, we receive and increase capacity to serve others.  We are challenged to grow beyond our own needs and desires to thinking about how we can be a part of building bridges into other people’s lives.

• Explode-  The power to accomplish the great things God has called each person to does not come from ourselves, but it comes from the power of God working in us and through us.  Jesus said, “You shall receive power once the Holy Spirit has come upon you and your shall be my witnesses…”  Power (dunamis) is the explosive power of God working in and through our Spirit.  We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit.  One of the evidences of being filled is fresh boldness and courage to accomplish our God given callings. The Kingdom of God is not merely a matter of speaking, but also of power. This power serves to bring spiritual freedom to those still held captive.

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He told us that many large companies have used it to revolutionize the way that they work together.  He also said that it was the driving force behind why certain companies became some of the best working environments in the world.

I have taken personality tests and even spiritual gift tests, so I was already thinking…”Do I really need another one of these tests”?  But I would later see that the Strengths Finder 2.0 helped me understand some key things about myself that I didn’t know before.

Since taking the tests, we have a couple of axioms that we have been trying to live by.

• There is no such thing as a truly well rounded person, but there is the chance to have a well rounded team.
• We cannot use our knowledge of each other’s strengths to point out what the other person is not.
• We will use our knowledge of our team mates strengths to call out greatness in one another.
• We can use our strengths to assign a team member to a project that they would be the most fitted for.
• Just because we know our strengths doesn’t mean that we are incapable in other non mentioned areas.
• We choose to give our greatest attention to our strengths rather than what we are weaker in.
• If possible, we can work to better manage our weaknesses or rather delegate them to another who would love the assignment.
• In our marriages and teams, we should know all that we can about each other’s strengths and how to draw them out.
• In our marriage, we are a team within a team.  We can leverage each other’s strengths in all areas of our lives.
• This doesn’t replace the need for us to understand our Spiritual gifts, but through it we can enhance our understanding.

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This is one interesting “tongue in cheek” take on how things could have played out.

http://www.mattbors.com

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His heart and passion for what he senses God calling him and his team to do shines through in this video. I love his strategy and emphasis of going to the people of their city.

I look forward to seeing what God accomplishes through him and his team as they break paradigms and bring the power and love of Jesus to people in California.  There is lots of room for the Gospel to break out into the streets, businesses, and apartment buildings of my home country!  Agree?

Here is the video where he shares the vision. 

Here is the video that I shot of him speaking here in Thailand.  I had the chance to speak with him in person and found him to be a super genuine, sincere, and humble man.  His family is awesome too!

What do you think of Francis Chan and the new direction he is taking in this type of church planting ministry?

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My short explanation is…

“I am a mission strategist and mobilizer, a thinker and practicioner. I work to empower local leaders through training partnerships & consultation, while also pioneering new context appropriate outreaches, “groups”, and resources.”

But beyond my own role in cross cultural missions work, I have thought through some words that can reveal function in “missions.”

When you think through your own work, key words can also help you understand how you view your own work and function.

Here are some of my own words with a little blurb of my thoughts on each one:

Learner- Taking in new information constantly as a way of life, whether it be through various types of media or in one on one conversations with people who are outside of your normal scope of conversation.  This heart is essential in missions work.  Many times we come in as the teachers when we should first be entering in as the learners.

Researcher- Taking the time and effort to seek out information and sift through everything to find information that either supports or stands against your propositions.  I would say that “Learner is my heart.  Researcher is part of the outworking.”

Thinker- Reflecting on that information you are taking in and how it affects your sphere of ministry and the lives and ministries of others.  It can take time to figure out how everything you are taking in fits together into the bigger picture of your local context.

Strategist- Coming up with ways to use information to reach goals that make a difference in accomplishing a God given mission as well as providing possible solutions to other groups who may need help.

Consultant- Helping others to understand the data and the strategic conclusions and solutions you to offer as part of a service to other groups in order, in my case, to help them answer the question, “What’s it going to take to see this God sized vision come to pass”?

Catalyst- Being an agent that gets the process of change moving in the right direction.  This means that you aren’t waiting for the model to follow, but you are working to create a model or get a needed vision moving in the right direction.

Practitioner- Being one who is not just a talker but a doer.  One who leads by setting a practical example or even precedents for others to follow. Your success is what will motivate other groups who are currently indifferent.

Writer- Documenting your real life findings on an ongoing basis.  Writing the vision and making it plain so that others may read it and run, thereby expanding influence (ie, leadership)  Writing can leave a legacy for other generations to follow and build upon.

Mobilizer- Helping other people to be involved in the process and work that would have otherwise not been able to see or experience it.  This is both locally and in the Western world.  A mobilizer gathers people for the fulfillment of a common cause.

Networker- Finding out where the holes are in accomplishing your God given goals and connecting with the right people who have strengths in that area.  Also connecting known resources to the people who need them, even if they don’t even know it yet!

Contextualizer- Working in your local context to build bridges from another person’s perspective and world-view into the Gospel worldview.  This role requires one to become a student of other people’s cultures and beliefs so that effective bridges can be built rather than walls.  Once the message has been communicated, what the person does with it is called “Indigenization.”

Resource Creator- As you see holes emerging in the local resources of your area and you have a burden to fill that hole, you can set out to create your own answer to the problem through the creation of new local resources.  These can come in many forms of media.

If you are working cross culturally what words would you use that reveal your function and contribution?

How do you explain your unique role of helping to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus in Matt 28:19-20?

Anything stand out to you from my list?

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It has the power to bless our lives.  But the reverse is also true. Unthankfulness has the power to destroy our life.

It is our daily choice.

I woke up this morning to join our friends for morning prayer.  As I began to pray I started by recounting the blessings that God has given me throughout my life.

I started with my mother who made the choice as a seventeen year old young single woman to not abort me.  She chose to give me life despite not knowing how we would make it financially or otherwise.

While at a Catholic convent in New Orleans, she prayed to God and told him that if he would take care of us, she would give me back to Him.

Growing up facing all that we faced as a family, both of us would have never known that I would one day have a family of my own and be serving God in a place like Thailand.

As I moved quickly through my years giving thanks to God, I began to tear up as I considered all that God had done for me, even in the midst of difficult and painful times.

And I knew that I was just scratching the surface.

Time and space would not be enough to recount all that God has done for me.

Beyond our own personal stories, each of us that have the ability to read a blog post like this, because we have a computer and internet access, are daily blessed in ways that we may take for granted.

In a recent article in Charisma magazine, J. Lee Grady reminds of us some of the basic blessings that we enjoy that many in this world still lives without.

Here is the short list:

• Clean water
• Bathroom
• Electricity
• Shelter
• Food
• A Stove
• Education
• Regular Income
• Healthcare
• Freedom to Worship

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But not until they first got their reality TV show, The Revolutionary Life, picked up by JCTV.

It’s now being broadcast weekly to a global audience.

When I first met Dustan and Darlene I knew that we were supposed to meet.  At that time, the show was still just an idea in progress and they were working hard to make it a reality.

One day after being in Chiang Mai for just a short time, I was needing to just get out of the house and away from all of the issues that can be associated with moving our family and unpacking.  We had recently moved from the Northeast of Thailand.

I drove my car down to the center of town of our new town, Chiang Mai, and looked for a place to park.  I circled around a certain area for awhile until I finally found a spot.

Once I parked, I took off walking not knowing where I was going but I decided to take a left at the end of the street in front of the city gate.  After walking for a minute or so, right in front of me I saw Dustan and Darlene walking toward me!  

I stopped them and introduced myself.  Dustan and I had exchanged an email or two but had never met in person.

I put them in my car and we got a pizza together for lunch.  From that day forward we have been great friends.

I really admire this couple because they have a strong heart for missions and a vision for mobilizing new workers for the world. But even more than this, they also have done everything in faith to make the vision come to life and succeed.

They have persevered until their hard work paid off.  And they are just getting started!

The tedious work of shooting and editing this unscripted look into their journey has been their own labor.  They are super hard working and passionate for getting the message of  ”global missions” out to a new generation.  I am honored to call them friends.

Below is the first of many episodes to come.  It’s a great intro called: “Welcome To the Mission Field.”

Be sure to check out their site The Revolutionary Life and Like their Revolutionary Life Facebook page.

Then let us know what you think below.

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Shot at the Bless Thailand Prayer Event held at Thae Pae Gate in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 19 November 2011

A large crowd of Thais showed up to worship God in the public square and pray for the nation of Thailand.

At the end of the event, the Thai people of Chiang Mai laid their hands upon the city gate and walls and prayed for God’s blessing over the city of Chiang Mai and over Thailand.

There are prophecies that revival would spread from Chiang Mai throughout Thailand and into other nations.  We are believing with the small but growing Thai church for this to happen.

Pray for Thailand.

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What is it all about? How does it play out with the current flooding situation?  Is there room for interpretation?

“Loi” means to float and “krathong” is the small boat that is floated.  It is usually very creatively made from natural materials such as banana stalk, banana leaves, and beautiful flowers that are just coming into bloom. The festival is celebrated every year in November at the time of the full moon.  The city is full of light, both naturally and from the glow of lanterns.

The origins and roots of the festival predate Buddhism but have been incorporated into Thai Buddhism as a way of making merit.

Originally and still today, many ask for the forgiveness of the “water spirit or water goddess” called “Pra Mae Khongka.”  There is also  a “serpent-ruler” called Phaya Nak that some Thais seek to “appease” in order to halt the monsoon rain, dispel floods and return the rivers to calm.

For me personally, I think this year’s Loi Krathong (2011) should be a wake up call for those who seek to placate these water controlling spirits. Obviously they are not very happy with Thailand.  I say this with all due respect to the Thai people.  Flooding has affected over one third of the provinces of Thailand for over three months now. Over five hundred people have already lost their lives and a recent report by the Thai government says that over one thousand people have reported to be suicidal because of the floods.

In the land where karma (the law of cause and affect) rules supreme, many true believers of this law of karma must be doing some serious introspection right now.  What has brought this misfortune upon us?  Why are we suffering? Why are we not fully helped?

Forgive us. But who will answer?

These are the principle questions that are asked in Buddhism and the principle problem that is sought to be eliminated by either merit making ceremonies (tham bun) or asking the forgiveness of various spirits, in this instance, the water spirit or “goddess” (jaow).

But what if we used Loi Krathong for an occasion to seek the Creator God of Heaven and Earth and asked him for forgiveness for our sins and the sins of our nation?

Thai people have sought the help of these “water spirits” even though that is not a very purely “Buddhist” thing to do.  It’s time for the good Thai people to break up with these serpent spirits.  They can not help.  They only seek to hurt.  The Bible portrays the ruler of darkness, Satan, as a serpent.  He is a ruler of lesser spirits that seek the attention, adoration, and offerings of man.  We need a full revolt against his rule and influence.

Some Westerners may be skeptical, but the Thai are very attuned to the supernatural reality of the world.  Yet they have been brought into a wrong allegiance with those spirits that were never meant to be worshipped or placated but rather defeated.  Jesus Christ has defeated them completely through his death, resurrection and ascension. All who in complete alliance with him through faith have power and authority over these spirits and do not need to fear them or even pay attention to them.  They are defeated foes.

What if we instead used Loy Krathong as a focused time to not only forgive others but also release grudges that we have held against other people for the year? (This would be great for political parties in Thailand to do right now!)

The “Krathong” would be a symbol of our sins being carried away from us and our grudges and unforgiveness being released for the year.  The three joss sticks could represent: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The candle could represent that we, in Jesus Christ, are the light of the world.  The flowers remind us of the beauty of life but yet like the flower our lives are fading, dying, and one day we will return to our Creator to give an account.  Overall we can be reminded that Jesus Christ paid the full price for our sin, to free us from the fear of karma retribution, and give us his full weight of merit (righteousness) so that we have fully received all of the merit we can ever need in this life!

From what I have seen in the explanation of the Loi Krathong background and meaning there is room for this type of adaptation and expression.  So far, it has been used as an ancient animistic ceremony to placate the water “goddess”, a Brahmin ceremony to worship one of the “gods”, and a Buddhist ceremony to worship the Buddha’s footprint and make personal merit.

In reality, it is main stay of the Thai culture; the most important cultural event of the year next only to Songkran.

Some of my friends love to take time to make their Krathongs beautiful and creative.  Even my own children learn how to make them in school and bring them home.  It is a time when communities, friends, and families get together.  It is a time when we enjoy the changing of the seasons and the nice weather.  We pop fireworks with our kids and float rice paper lanterns to symbolize our sins being taken away from us for the year.  We take time to eat together and fellowship.

Friends At The Market Making a "Krathong" Together

There are many stories in Thailand for each main cultural festival.  When I ask some of my Buddhist friends what the day means to them, each one has something a little different to say.   Many of their meanings are not pure Buddhism but a mixture of what is important to them.

For some, the Krathong is just pretty and they like making them (similar to an American carving a pumpkin, painting an Easter egg, or decorating a Christmas tree).  To others, they are asking for forgiveness for polluting the water this past year.  And to still others, they are seeking a chance to add some merit to their karmic bank account hoping for their good to outweigh their bad.

Why have we not infused the day with our own meaning?  Why do we think that it cannot be done?  Who has taught us this?  Well, it won’t be me!  I have to believe that our God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, deserves the glory of the nations.  (Rev 21:23-24)

One of the glories of Thailand is Loi Krathong.

May it one day be presented back to Almighty God in a way that is both pleasing to Him and truly beneficial to the Thai people!  And may Almighty God hear the prayers of the Thai people, forgive, free them from fear and spiritual bondage, and heal our land.  ( 2 Chr 7:14)

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Today I was meeting with my ministry partner at a local restaurant to discuss some preliminary goals that we needed to accomplish before the end of the year related to our overall outreach and training plan.  We were encouraging each other by sharing what we sense that God is doing in us and through us and what we are believing Him for in regards to Thailand coming to know Jesus.

The verse and saying that has become our mantra of sorts is Luke 10:2, “The Harvest Is Ready.”

Just as we were wondering what could happen here in Thailand, a friend who works here in Thailand came up and thanked us for sharing with a group that he was a part of last week.  We had spoken to a network of fellow missionaries on some fresh insights as to what is happening in Thailand and what we feel needs to happen in order to see a movement begin here.  We didn’t know it then, but we were speaking some things that was confirming the amazing experience he and his team were already having as they made the decision to step out of the four walls and engage the people more than they had done before.

He began to tell us about how he and some of his guys have been going out to a certain village and moving from house to house, meeting with people.  He and his wife had met a Thai lady who he was having small talk with when she asked him “What do you do?  Why are you really here”?  He replied, “I am a Bible teacher.  I love to teach God’s Word and help people to understand it for themselves.”  The lady said something to the affect of, “Everyone in my village thinks I am a crazy woman.  I want to tell you about the experience that I have had.”  She was thinking that this man and his wife might think she was crazy too.

Seeking Answers. Is anyone listening?

First she told of a dream where a tall man appeared to her.  He looked “foreign” and had long flowing hair.  He said to her, Halle…Halle (she was trying to pronounce what the man had said to her).  Finally she said, “He said ‘Hallelujah’.”  ”I don’t know what that means though.” she told our friend.

She went on to tell about how her son was sick, nearly dying.  One day while she was meditating at home, “a Spirit or an angel” spoke to her and told her that she place her hands on her son, and that He would heal him.  Though she didn’t understand, she obeyed and her son was healed and is completely well to this day.

The Spirit then told her to get rid of all of her idols and “sacred” things and that he would protect her and her son.  So she took everything and put it outside of her house.  This is why her neighbors thought she was going crazy.  She was told that eventually someone would come to her and tell her about Him more fully.  She then said to our friend, “I guess that person is you.”

Our friend tried to tell the lady more about Jesus, but he thought that she should also have a Bible so he gave her one.  She said that she was not a good reader and asked for one on audio.  He began searching all over town for an audio Bible and finally found one. When he returned to the woman and excitedly told her about what he found, she said, “Oh, that’s ok, I have already read up until this point (pointing to the Book of Romans).  She had read from Matthew to Romans in one sitting through the night!  She was supernaturally enabled to read God’s word.

She questioned the missionary about a story in the book of Mark where a boy was possessed by a spirit.  She though that she might have that same problem, because the Spirit inside of her told her things about people.  She said that she knew many things about different people at different times.  The missionary, who is from a conservative Christian background, questioned her deeper about it asking for examples.

She then said, “For instance I know things about her.” (pointing to the Thai Christian woman who had accompanied them to visit this woman’s home).  The lady then began to tell her things about her present, past, and internal feelings about what had happened in this lady’s life that no one could have known naturally.  This lady then began to speak words of comfort and encouragement to her telling her in essence that the Spirit inside of her knew what she had gone through and had compassion on her.  The Thai Christian lady was deeply impacted.

The missionary then decided to call in a solid local Thai pastor who visited the lady to “test the spirit.”  He came away concluding that this woman surely did know Jesus though she had not known his name until the time the missionary and his wife came to fully explain.  The Thai pastor then took time to teach the woman the Word of God from noon until late into the night.  She received his teaching and so he invited her to attend church.

She eventually was asked not to return to the church service because she was praying in tongues during the worship and causing a “disturbance.”  Our friend and his team decided instead to bring the church to this lady and started a meeting in her home where they are now helping her to know God more fully.

I know there is may be more to this story, but I am telling it from memory, how it was told to me today.

Isn’t this an incredible story?!

It came from someone I would consider a very solid Christian leader who belongs, not to a Charismatic or Pentecostal group, but to a fairly conservative denomination.  For us, it was so amazing how this story came to us at the very moment we were talking to each other before God about finding these types of people.  Scripture, in Luke and Matthew 10, calls these people “sons of peace.”  We call them “people of peace.”  They are the people that God himself has prepared to not only hear the Word, but also open their area up for the Gospel to come in and the Kingdom of God to be established.

I marvel at the ways of our God and I am so encouraged to hear of how he put this very supernatural testimony right in front of a group of believers who come from a traditionally conservative background.  They did not blink, but did the right thing, and tested the spirit to see whether it was God or not.  They even got a second opinion and still believed that this is surely God Himself at work.

All of the elements of the supernatural was in effect in this woman’s testimony.

A foreign looking man in older style clothes/robes (Jesus or an angel?) appears in a dream and speaks “Hallelujah”, God later speaks to her while she is praying desperately in a Buddhist temple, instructs her on the laying on of hands, heals her son who was on his death bed, instructs her to remove her idols and sacred things, strengthens her during persecution from her neighbors, fills her with the Spirit, gives her supernatural gifts including prophecy, tongues, and the Word of Knowledge, and tells her to wait for the one who will come and explain to her more fully about who He is to her.

A missionary and his team who have just begun to venture out of their own fellowship and into the streets is the one chosen to meet this lady at her home.  It doesn’t immediately come out who they are and what they have come to do.  But she herself presses them and it leads into her sharing her powerful testimonies.  This Thai lady, like most Thai people, is not interested in reading. but is instructed to read once the missionary leaves to find her a Bible on CD.  While the missionary searches for an audio Bible, she ends up reading all the way from Matthew to Romans in one night session.  She does not fit into the local Thai church culture, so God instructs his ministers to start a church in her home.

What happens next will be very dependent on how this group has prepared itself.  They could either rejoice over this one testimony and group that has been started or train this lady and those who come after her to start a movement!

Friends, truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.  If I wanted to make up a story like this, I couldn’t do this good of a job!  This is an amazing encouragement to me and our team.  I believe that anyone who is going outside of “the four walls” or making plans to go out and “seek and save that which was lost” among the Thai people should be highly encouraged that they need to step up their plans and move out as quickly as possible.  Those of you who pray for the Thai people should find great encouragement to keep it up!  And those of you who are skeptical should remember that a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with a good argument!

God is at work and He is calling us to join Him.  What an amazing privilege!  Luke 10:2, “The Harvest is Ready.”  But are we?

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“Your vocation is a part of God’s work in the world, and God gives you resources for serving the human community.

These factors can help you identify your calling.

• Affinity—“Look out.”

Affinity is the normal, existential/priestly way to discern call.

What people needs do I vibrate to?

• Ability—“Look in.”

Priesthood of all believers, secular versus sacred

Ability is the normal, rational/prophetic way to discern call.

What am I good at doing?

• Opportunity—“Look up.”

Opportunity is the normal, organizational/kingly way to discern call.

What do the leaders/my friends believe is the most strategic kingdom need?

Your life is not a series of random events.

• Your family background, education, and life experiences—even the most painful ones—all equip you to do some work that no one else can do.

We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do“ (Eph. 2:10).”

by Timothy Keller, 2011 by Redeemer City to City. 

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By December 2011 the floods were still affecting over 4.4 million people in 83 districts of 10 provinces, 63 out of 76 provinces have been affected.

Duration: Going on 5 months plus, some areas have been in inundated the whole time.  This is the worst flooding in 50 years for Thailand, but probably much more strongly felt economically in this current time.

Death Toll: 800 plus, many from electrocution.  This is a real tragedy since much of this could have been prevented.

Affected and Non Affected Areas: Bangkok is now free and clear.  We are not sure which provinces are still under water but we know that some, especially North and West of Bangkok are still inundated and the people are still suffering.

Major tourist destinations such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Sukhothai, Kanchanaburi, Ratchburi, Pattaya, Ko Chang, Rayong, Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Ko Samui are all flood free.  Ayutthaya is said to be working to clean up, but there have been reports of problems with foul odors and dirt.

Leading the Fight: Newly elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who has no prior governmental experience.  She has admitted to being exhausted in the fight and many claim that she has been publicly on the verge of tears many times yet she continues to fight on.  Internal fighting between the Bangkok governor and the national government has played out in the media.

Inner Bangkok Dry: inner Bangkok and the main airport will stay dry, but many of the surrounding areas have been under water for four months and residents had been growing restless and sometimes even combative.

Areas still under water and worse hit include Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Nakhon Pathom.

People flying into Bangkok and then connecting to other flights should have no trouble at this time.  The old airport, Don Muang, is currently under water.  Flights originating there have been relocated to the main airport.

Clean Up: Many residents faced huge piles of mud, black mold, and water lines in their homes with little to no resources that can be used to clean up.  Currently, Bangkok alone is collecting about 13,400 tonnes of post-flood garbage per day, compared to the usual 8,500 tonnes. A large amount of garbage was damaged furniture, hence officials had arranged 100 trucks to remove the furniture.

Crocodiles and Green Mamba Snakes (Nonthaburi-Pak Kret District) were reported to have escaped into certain flooded areas and there are hunters out looking for them.  The snake story was debunked by the government but they still offered a reward for captured mambas.  The Fishery Department reported 400 complaints seeking officials’ help to capture crocodiles from flood-affected areas in Bangkok and Nonthaburi alone. Officials had managed to capture 12 crocodiles.

Industrial manufacturing parks for large electronics and automobiles were underwater which haulted all production and affected global supply chains. Tens of thousands of factories have been affected which has had an effect on the global supply chain especially noted in the area of computer hard drives.

The Thai school term was delayed, with more than 3,000 schools damaged.

Pattaya and Hua Hin: Tens of thousands of Bangkok residents had moved into outlying areas like Pattaya and Hua Hin to escape the floods which didn’t make them very tourist friendly places if you count crowding as a factor.

Living Day to Day: Those most vulnerable citizens were those who can’t afford to evacuate.  Most Thai people live day to day financially, especially street vendors and small shop owners. Migrant workers and those in slum communities were the most at risk.

Standing Waters: Flood waters contained raw sewage, garbage, and industrial wastes.  These waters could have eventually affected tap water supplies and open the door for many types of diseases and skin conditions.

Flooding had disrupted food and water supply chains making it harder for stores to stay fully stocked even in other parts of Thailand.

Animals and Farming: Multitudes of animals and livestock have drowned in the floods.  One report stated that millions of chickens drowned.

Huge portions of farming land have been ruined (12 million rai) along with at least 15% of the rice harvest.

Economy: The long term affects of this flood on the Thai economy could be disastrous.

An initial 100 billion baht, or $3.2 billion, has been pledged by the Thai government to rebuild roads, homes and hospitals.

$10 million of aid has been promised by the United States.

It was expected that at the end of this year, tourist numbers would be down by at least 900,000 persons, an estimated loss of Bt35 billion for Thailand’s tourism industry.

These massive floods have been compared to a slow moving shallow tsunami coming from the North.

Faith:  Public ceremonies had been held to pray and make offerings to the “water goddess”, but this has obviously been futile. Thai Christian churches and NGO’s have been delivering much needed food and supplies by boat to those affected since the start of the major flooding.  They have been rallying around their neighbors and helping them clean up their homes regardless of religious orientation.

Pray for Thailand especially for those who are still suffering.  May Almighty God have mercy on this land and her people.

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Our “world” has just gotten a little bit bigger now.

What does this reality mean for the global Church in regards to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ (Matt 28:18-20)?  

This means that our strategies have to flex with the growing reality we face if we are going to be effective in carrying out the Commission.

A recent Time magazine article breaks down some of the realities of what seven billion people means for us.

Roger Martin, chair of the NGO Population Matters, writing in the Guardian recently:

The 7 Billion Day is a sobering reminder of our planet’s predicament. We are increasing by 10,000 an hour. The median UN forecast is 9.3 billion by 2050, but the range varies by 2.5 billion — the total world population in 1950 — depending on how we work it out.

Every additional person needs food, water and energy, and produces more waste and pollution, so ratchets up our total impact on the planet, and ratchets down everyone else’s share — the rich far more than the poor.

The author brings to light the massive impact of each person’s physical needs, but what about their spiritual need?  

This reality has seriously challenged me to look even deeper into what we can practically do to see “Church Planting Movements” multiplied in every nation of the world and among all unreached people groups.

I believe that “CPM” is our only real hope.  

I believe we should not settle for anything less than “movements” to Christ.

We can’t continue to operate under the old paradigms that we have brought to the missions world through our forefathers.  We live in a new generation that requires us to push further, faster.

This week I have been reading an extraordinarily practical book on how we can work to this end.  

It is based on powerful real world breakthroughs using what has been called a “A Discipleship Re-Revolution”

I have been locked into the idea of church planting movements since David Garrison’s first booklet on the subject was released in 1999 and then turned into a full book..

However I have been in a fog about how these types of movements could practically happen until I read this book.

The lights have been coming on.  I have been remembering key moments in my own life that have continued to lead me toward this end.

More than ever, we need the whole Church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world.  All “units” are needed to thrive; traditional, mega, and organic.

But I am convinced more than ever that our forward edge in missions among the billions who have little to no access to the Gospel must be nothing less than church planting movements.

There is a whole new culture and paradigm shift that we will have to willingly go through if we are going to play our part.  To be sure, there is a price to be paid.

We cannot be passive and scattered in our approach and yet still expect to do something of significant eternal value.

If you want to explore if you are up for the challenge, you should buy this book and begin to read it with a pen and notebook by your side.

Watch the video:

T4T Online on Vimeo.

Let me know what you discover for yourself.

Further Reading:

NatGeo article here

TIME article here

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Hi John, You may recall when you visited us a few months ago, we prayed for a man (Paw ***) who had had a stroke. He is much better now, walking around, his speech is still slurred, but his faith is strong.

While we were at his house another man came over to see us.  Khun ** had become a believer when we first began working in the village four years ago. But he was an alcoholic and seemed unable (or unwilling) to escape his addiction.

We had prayed for him many times, and for a time there was an improvement, he got a job. But he dropped out of attending the House church meeting about 2 years ago, though we invited him to come every time we saw him.

When you visited with us you had a prophetic word for him along the lines of “This was his last chance..to be free”.

Sadly we learned last week that he was dead, run over by a truck while crossing the road at night (reportedly drunk).

We had seen him a week before as we were heading to the church meeting and invited him to attend, but he didn’t come. I feel sad for ** (and his believing wife, Mae **), but I marvel at God’s grace.

It’s not God’s will that anyone perishes but if we stubbornly choose destructive lifestyles, death will come. But such amazing grace that the Lord seeing Op’s death coming, warned him one last time through you.

All I can say is “Wow.”  This is very sobering thing for me.  It reminds me that Spiritual gifts like the word of knowledge  are never to be taken lightly.  They are the means through which God can communicate a “now” word to a person.

They are meant to show mercy and give people the help that they need for that particular moment in their lives.

I remember laying hands on this man and praying over him, breaking the spirit of addiction in Jesus’ name.  I then told him that he has the chance to be free but he must make the choice.

I really did tell him that this was his last chance.

I remember feeling very sober when I said it.  Not knowing him or his extended story at all before this time of prayer, I remember that it was uncomfortable to “go there” with a stranger.

God is merciful.  He wants to speak.  We must be willing to hear and obey.

Please lift his believing wife in prayer after you read this and pray for all the people like him in Thailand who are struggling with addictions that will ultimately be their demise unless they get freedom.

If you are struggling with addiction of any kind, call out to Jesus Christ.  He has the power to set you free and keep you free for life.  But you have a free will.  It’s your choice.

John 8:36

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I see the warning pop up.

I watch my percentages go from 9 to 4 to 2 to one and yet I still don’t plug in.

I am too focused on what I am doing at that very moment.  I know it would be best to just stop and grab it and plug in.

But I choose to wait.  I have a little more time I tell myself.  Then I forget.

All of a sudden…black screen…frustration….grumbling and I’m looking for the power cord.

Now I am forced to plug in.

I have no choice.

Isn’t this a picture of our spiritual lives sometimes?

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I had been on quite a streak since I reformatted the blog, posting almost every day since.

Then we had a visitor and I threw myself completely into making sure she had the best possible time here and that my family had 100% of my attention.

Through it all I realized something about myself, a little pattern you could say.

I tend to be consumed by whatever I am working on at the moment.  I work better in blocks of time, definitely task oriented.  I like check lists.

And many times, my life and ministry projects become all or nothing.

Knowing this about myself, I have sought to diversify and to spread out into more consistent patterns.

My other problem is that I have too much to say.  I have too much I want to write, too much I want to do, and this has the potential to stall me sometimes.

All or nothing creeps up again.

Finally, I can be a bit of a perfectionist.  When I worked in the business world, my “personality profile” stated that “I want things done right and right away.”  Intense, I know.

I find that if I would rather hold off than release something that I consider half-done.

Maybe you can relate?

So, I am trying to break out a little and be more free.  I am trying to just write and release.

I don’t how this will look going forward, but I will try my best to be more consistent and even a little messy at times.  I am going to try and break things up into smaller bite sized pieces more often.

Hope you will stick around and join in the conversation.  Let me know if there are any topics you would like to have me write about!

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If you were given a little time and space, you may have changed your mind, but you didn’t have that opportunity.

Since my mom is visiting, we decided to take in some of the sights of Chiang Mai with her.  We have been here for over a year now, two and a half years in Thailand, but haven’t visited an elephant camp yet. (Sad, I know.)

So, we booked an all inclusive tour and made our way by van about a hour or so north of the city.

Once we arrived at the camp, we were greeted by the coolest elephants and their mahouts (drivers/trainers). They were motioning excitedly for us to grab the rope and get up on the elephants bare back.  I thought it would be fun and was the first to grab on.  Many other people followed and the others were having a great time snapping pics.

When we were all off the elephants, we were standing there waiting for our “already paid for” tour to begin.

Instead we were blocked in by the elephants and mahouts who were standing there with 100 baht bills in their hands staring at all of us ATMS (eh hem, I mean “tourists”).

No one said anything, but the expectation was clear.  They wanted tips, now, and the expectation was set…not 20 baht, but 100 baht.

I gave a tip and asked one of the young guys in Thai, “where do we go next?  It’s hot.”  We were all standing in the sun with no clear direction. Eventually we moved on.  After watching the mahouts let the elephants go into the river to cool off, we sat down on some bleachers for a show.

After the show, the mahouts rode the elephants up to us and again the 100 baht bills appeared.  But this time we were seated between these huge elephants and the top row of a set of bleachers.  I didn’t have anything appropriate to give them at the time.

I was thinking that I could give tips when everything was finished. I could give when I actually felt like I should give something because I felt like the service was worth it!  I just wasn’t properly prepared at that exact moment.

Yet I was being cornered. Literally.

But the craziest thing happened.  When I didn’t put cash into the elephants trunk to give to his rider, he was trained to begin to hit us with his trunk!  At this point my four year old was getting scared and my wife was getting pissed.  I told the mahout in Thai, “Stop it.  Make him stop.”  Instead of stopping he looked us right in the eye and made the elephant hit us again and again!  They finally backed away after an uncomfortable length of time.

What would you have done in that situation?  Hit the elephant back?  He had just picked up a huge log with that same trunk! With one swipe he could have taken us all out.  Screamed at the driver?  I had spoken calmly and he just glared back at me.  It was clearly a case of bullying for money.

During the tour there were other set up times to extract more “tips.”  I just hate stuff like this.

Through all of this I realized somethings that I think are common for most of us.

• I am all about helping the needy, but I despise it when people feign poverty in order to get money from someone.  It can come from a sad look or some other form of manipulation.  Not everyone who feigns need is truly in need.
• I don’t like it when people are expecting a certain amount, get something less than what they expected, and then catch an attitude. Don’t they realize they could have received nothing and that they are sealing their fate when it comes to any potential future “tips”.
• If they don’t receive anything, don’t they realize that they are blessed to even be able to have a decent job and the income from the tour that I ALREADY paid for myself and the four other people with me?
• Bullying a person, or using fear and manipulation, may squeeze a “tip” out of a person but it almost certainly guarantees a loss of future business both from that person and the people they know.
• We may be normally generous people but when a person comes with a “sense of entitlement”, it is a complete turn off to generosity.

I’m sure you can think of your own examples and applications, right?

Don’t get me wrong.  If you work for mainly tips, I am not talking about you.  Maybe what I am talking about is mainly a problem of the “tourist traps” in this part of the world.  Maybe its not.  More than the issue of “to tip or not to tip” or “to be generous or not”, I am talking about manipulation and bullying.

I hate it and I think you do too.

My mom told me that she was approached by a woman not too long ago while she was having lunch at a McDonald’s in the States.  The woman said she was hungry and wanted my mom to buy her some food.  After some questioning about her situation, my mom agreed to buy her a hamburger.  The lady scoffed, “I mean, you can’t buy me a whole meal deal?  I need more to eat than a hamburger!”

That, my friends, is a sense of entitlement.

My mom was surely willing to buy her the whole meal, but since the lady caught an attitude, she ended up with nothing that day.

We need to be aware of this sense of entitlement and how it will hinder our goals, not help.

When it comes to elephants and entitlement; they may get some short term gain but they are sure to lose in the long run.

What do you think?  Have you ever been in a similar situation?  How did you handle it?

PS: With this exception, we had a good time at the elephant camp.  The price was good for what we got from the tour.

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You found yourself facing an incident that forced you into a critical decision that would change the course of your life’s direction?

One year ago this month we moved to Chiang Mai from Khon Kaen, a 13 hour drive away.  I didn’t want to move.  I had had finally started to become adjusted to my home in the Northeast of Thailand.  I despised the thought of moving.  But it was time to move.

I was thinking about this time in our life today when I came across a chapter in Donald Miller‘s Book  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.  It’s a book that’s all about how our stories are formed in life.

In the book, he and some friends who are helping to write his story, begin to discuss how to make his character move.

They said that a general rule in creating stories is that characters don’t want to change.  They must be forced to change.

“The rule exists in story because it’s a true thing about people.”

"Inciting Incidents" Not Welcome Here

So, as the story goes the friends decide that the character needs an “inciting incident.”

An inciting incident is simply

“an event that forces your character to move.  It’s the thing that happens to throw your character into their story.  It’s the doorway through which they can’t return.  The story takes care of the rest.”

For us personally, it was the needs of our youngest son.  He was behind in speech and development.  We were not in a place where he could receive the proper help.  We needed to make a drastic change in order to help him.

Although we had already moved to four different houses in just a year and a half, we made one more decision to move to the second largest city in Thailand, Chiang Mai.  We had just begun to feel settled and a new major life change was upon us again.

We naturally seek comfort and stability as humans.  Yet many times we are called into a place of discomfort and fear of the unknown in order to engage our story, that would have not happened otherwise.

No one likes to be forced into an “inciting incident” yet they can be highly important, even critical, to our life story.

We have a choice.  

We can find fresh motivation and vision and rise to the occasion.  This is how the hero is born, the overcomer.

Or we can fall under the weight of the “incidents” that come into our lives.  It is only then that our story can become a “tragedy.”

One of the things I like about Miller’s story is that he realized the power of the “inciting incident” in his own life and began to create some good, healthy scenarios and throw himself into them by choice.

He learned how to identify the lines of challenge and cross them at the point of no return.

I am challenged to do that as well.

Maybe you are facing some difficult yet highly important decision in your life right now.  Some inciting incident has forced your hand.  You have a choice to make and your victory in the situation all has to do with attitude and perspective.

As for us, looking back over the last year, we can see the hand of God in our forced move.  

We have connected with great people that we would have never met otherwise.  We are involved in some ministry that has helped us break out of our boxes and see things in a fresh new light.  Our hearts and minds have been expanded and developed more than if we would have stayed.

Our son is increasingly growing in his abilities and development.  He has come so far in the last year, even surprising his therapist.

As we look forward into the next phase of life, we are thankful for all that we have experienced.  Our story continues to be written.  In fact in many ways it is just getting started.

So what about you?  Your story continues to be written.  Maybe its even just getting started too.

What kind of “inciting incidents” come to your mind that caused you to pass the point of no return in your own story? Leave us a comment and share your thoughts.

Have you had an “incident” that caused you to finally come to God and surrender your life and destiny to Him? No better time for that decision than today.

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His recent unexpected death at the early age of 56 has many people wondering about his personal faith.

He has been known to speak very openly about death and how its reality has motivated him in his life to accomplish something of great substance and worth.  He is quoted as saying “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon, is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

But beyond statements like this concerning death, he has not spoken very openly about his faith.

Some have pointed out that he was confirmed as a Lutheran.  Yet what has emerged about him concerning his faith is that he visited ashrams in India during the 70′s and returned to the States as a “Buddhist.”

But what kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs? Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Zen, or a New Age mix?

Steve Jobs: Buddhist?

We know that he was married to his wife at Yosemite National Park by Kobin Chino Otogowa, a Zen Buddhist monk.

So, we can assume that he might have considered himself a Zen Buddhist, which is a school of Mahayana.  This would also explain his minimalist approach to life and design.  I heard that he lived a very simple life and ate vegetarian with the exception of fish.

To the Buddhist, this is commendable.  As far as what his beliefs may have been, we can deduct that as a Zen Buddhist:

He would not have a belief in a personal Creator God.  He would have been steered cleared of asking these kind of questions.

• He would believe in the law of karma which he briefly mentions in his speech to Stanford University.
• He would believe that life is cyclical and that he will return to this world again depending on his karma.
• He probably believed that he had a “Buddha nature” and sought to develop it and attain some form of inner enlightenment.
• He may have practiced “katsu” which is like primal scream therapy as well as some meditation and chanting.
• As a Buddhist he would be taught to not depend on anyone but himself even though he may have followed a “teacher.”

If we look at the time that Steve Jobs grew up in, we can see that his Buddhism was probably more of a New Age type of religion or practice rather than a real practice of classical Buddhism.  He used mind altering drugs, visited ashrams, and probably took what he thought was useful from the Zen tradition and incorporated into his life.

This seems to be the “Buddhism” of most who claim it from the Western world.  It is a hodge podge of man different things, thrown together in a cafeteria style, for “whatever works for me or makes me happy.”

In a book interview, Jobs called his experience with LSD “one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.” As Jobs himself has suggested, LSD may have contributed to the “think different” approach that still puts Apple’s designs a head above the competition.

Using LSD would not be considered a very Buddhist thing to do.  It goes against the 5 main prohibitions of the Buddha, one of which is to not take any intoxicating substance.  Yet it would flow with the general tenor of the “New Age” that was emerging as a dominant religious force from the late counter cultural rebellion of the 60′s.

Some accounts say that as a corporate leader he was a very intense man with his employees and could drive many to tears.  He was infamous for tearing apart his competition through verbal assaults and parodies.  He created products that are highly useful to many of us (I use them myself).  Yet in the Buddhist mind, it could be said that these products create desire, craving, and clinging which leads to suffering.  (yes, seriously)  The main purpose of Buddhism is to cease suffering, not create more desire and craving.

Although He made billions of dollars from his success, he was not known to be a philanthropist like Bill Gates.  He had a lot of chances to use his influence for something that would alleviate the suffering of multitudes, but sadly he passed without using the opportunity.  His personal charity could have made a huge difference around the world.

Yet to me this is consistent with Buddhist teaching, which is about personal spiritual enlightenment and each person standing on his own; based on his own karma whether it be  good or bad.

He was like us all, an imperfect human being, in need of salvation and reconciliation to his Creator.  Like us, he was a man in need of understanding the true purpose of why he was put on this earth; to love God supremely and to love others.  His days, like ours, were numbered.

To me, his Buddhism was not classic.  Most Buddhism in the world is not.  Which begs the question “Is the tail wagging the dog”? (my attempt to be Zen).

His Buddhist ideology may have helped develop him as a person in some sense, but ultimately I believe it failed to provide the real solution to the problem of suffering and the answer to the real purpose of humanity.

We can only hope that in his last days on this Earth he found something fuller, more complete.

I believe that the fullness would be a reconciliation to his Creator through faith and trust the finished work of Jesus Christ alone.

We may never know on this side of eternity.  But you can learn from this example, and you can know. (1 John 5:11-13)

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I recently have been going through the process again of getting roundtrip plane tickets from America to Thailand again.  My mom is coming to visit us for the first time, so we are pretty excited about it!

Got me thinking about the process of traveling to Thailand and so I wanted to share my way with you.

My way is possibly not the easiest but I try to make it the most cost effective, especially when I travel with three other people or more in our group.

Cheap Domestic Flight:

My first step is to find a cheap domestic flight within the US to Los Angeles.

Bangkok Airport by Trey Ratcliff (CC) See more at http://www.stuckincustoms.com

I have tried San Francisco with some success as well, but LAX is my first “go to” hub.  This is not because its the nicest, but because its usually the easiest to fine good deals to Asia.  I try to search many comparison web sites to get the best deal, but I always end back up at Orbitz.com.

To Los Angeles or San Francisco:

From LAX, I try to find an International carrier going to Bangkok.  In the past I would use EVA airlines, but the best deals recently have been coming through China Airlines (not to be confused with Air China).  They have a real easy to use web site and I am able to search through the best possible schedules and prices pretty easily.

Their flights usually leave just after midnight.  This means that if I travel domestically to LAX on the 1st, I will leave LAX just after midnight on the 2nd.  Make sense?  So, be sure to double check your times and dates.

That flight usually lays over for a bit in Taiwan if you are on China Airlines.  Then you switch planes, take off again, and arrive in Bangkok.

Arriving Bangkok or Passing Through:

Arriving in Bangkok can be tricky if its not your final destination.  Many times the cheapest flights arrive at 1:30 in the morning or so. If you want, you can get a cab to a nearby hotel.  I use Agoda Hotels to find the best deals in Asia. Metered taxis are lined up at the airport to take you where you need to go once you exit the airport.  Ignore the “touts” and find the official taxi line.

But mostly to save money, I just stay in the airport and kick back for a few hours until the first 6:30 am flight, in our case, to Chiang Mai.

To fly to Chiang Mai, I use Air Asia.  The flights are the least expensive even after they tack on all of their fees; especially for baggage, seat selection, food, and optional travel insurance (which I don’t buy).  The flight takes a measly hour or so.

If you don’t fly from Bangkok, you have two options: bus or train.  If I use the bus to Chiang Mai, I go Nakhon Chai Air First Class out of their own little bus station or the big Mo Chidt Station. The one I use leaves sometime around 9:00 pm and arrives in Chiang Mai the next day at 6:30 am.  Seats do fill up fast so buy your tickets asap.  Schedules here.

I have not used the train yet, but my friends like it.  They get a sleeper train, usually first class.  But be aware that the train takes longer and is frequently delayed.

Total Time Traveling:  

From the South or Eastern part of America to Chiang Mai Thailand, the whole process takes about 36 hours total with layovers and wait time.  So my mom will leave early Saturday morning and will arrive in Chiang Mai early Monday morning.

You lose time coming into Thailand, but you gain it on the way back.

Total Costs:

The whole amount this time was $1395.25 (could be more or a less depending on the season) round trip.  This is a good lower average though.

• Air Asia from Bangkok to Chiang Mai: 4553 bht or $146.25 Total (all fees included + one paid for checked bag)
• China Airlines from Los Angeles to Bangkok: $947.50 Total (all fees included)
• Delta Airlines from New Orleans to Los Angeles: $302.10 Total (all fees incl.- Delta checked bags all the way to Bangkok with no additional baggage fees because it was an international flight & they have an agreement with China Air)

If you have done this route from America to Thailand and back, what are your insights?  

What kind of deals do you find and where?  Tell us something that you find helpful by leaving a comment below.  Got questions, let us know and we will see if we can answer them.

Maybe we will see you in the future!

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They are:

• Ignorance- “Awicha”
• Craving- “Tanha”
• Clinging- “Upataan”

In addition, there is the idea that everything in this world is unstable and transitory (“mai tiang”).

Talking with my Buddhist monk friends, it is said that these qualities are the root cause of all suffering and evil in the world.

If they are not eradicated, they will bring continuous suffering.  We agree. How they are eradicated is where our paths diverge.

But where did these qualities originate from?  What was their original cause?

There is an answer in Buddhism for how they originate in us as people, but not how they originated ultimately.

Here is how we speak of the three elements causing suffering and how they came to be; using the testimony of God’s Word

Breaking the Problems of Ignorance, Craving, & Clinging

God’s Word speaks clearly about where these three things originated.  They are a part of “the curse”, created by the disobedience of our common ancestors, Adam & Eve, and passed down to all humanity. (Genesis 3)

Because of ignorance they believed the lie of Satan that the forbidden fruit would make one wise and that they would become like God himself, knowing good and evil.  Yet the truth was that their decision to disobey God would plunge the world into ignorance.  The main thing that mankind would be “willingly ignorant” of is the very God who gave them life. (Romans 1:18-22)

Craving arose in the heart of Adam and Eve. They took the fruit, ate, and their eyes were opened.  From this point on, sin entered the world and sinful cravings arose in the hearts of mankind.

Karma (Kum), or “cause and effect”, arose and entered in as well.  We have been receiving the effects of one man’s choice throughout all of our history.  This choice has reverberated to include our sinful choices and deliberate neglect of our Creator God and King. (Romans 5:12)

Clinging arose as man grasped at anything that he could find to fill the void in his spirit as his sin separated him from God’s presence.  That separation caused further darkness and ignorance.  Man still clings to his own ideas, to his own ways, even though God his Creator has spoken that the first commandment is for mankind to cling to Him alone for “he is our life and the length of our days.” (Prov 14:12 & Deu 30:20)

How Jesus Saves and Breaks the Power of Each Problem

Jesus Christ came into this world to reveal the Father God; who is He is, what he is like, and what he requires of humanity.  Jesus is the light that destroys the darkness of ignorance.  He teaches us that eternal life is “knowing” the Father. (John 17:3)

Jesus destroys craving by demonstrating his power over craving and tempation then leading us to the way of the cross.  He says, “If any man comes after me, he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)  The way of the cross is the way to destroy sinful craving, both here and now, and ultimately.

Jesus is above the laws of “cause and effect” or “sowing and reaping.”  He is able to “cancel the handwritten ordinances”, the record of charges, the record of debts that were against us.  He destroyed it by nailing it to the cross. (Col 2:14).  If we sin (tham bapt) we are able to confess our sins, and Jesus is actually just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9)

Finally, Jesus brings us back to our original purpose as humanity and that is to know God and cling to Him alone.  (Deu 13:4)

In this world, everything is transitory (I Cor 7:31), but there is one thing that remains, and is not transitory (tiang ter) and that is Almighty God Himself.

When we cling (hold fast) to Him alone, we are freed from clinging to the unstable things of this world.

What do you think?  Do see some aspects of Buddhism as possessing a portion of humanity’s common story?  Isn’t all truth, by nature, God’s truth?

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In our generation, there can be this ethereal or even unreal sense of what that word really means.  Some may hear the word “evil” or “devil” and their minds automatically go to the red suited little guy with horns and a pitchfork.

When we are used to “evil” being a joke, we are more than likely not going to take the threat of it seriously in our own lives.

We will keep thinking that it is “out there somewhere” rather than near us, and even plotting our demise.  

Greg Boyd, in his book “God at War” has said,

Evil can never be properly discussed in the abstract.  We must always have concrete examples of evil before us if our discussion is truly to be about evil and not just the possibility of evil.

Babies are cute. Evil isn't.

As I was discussing this with a friend of mine, he mentioned some of these concrete examples that he has personally encountered.

Being a veteran missionary living and working in Thailand, he has seen examples of evil’s influence, not only in the lives of the Thai people, but even in the lives of those who come to minister to them.

• The short term missionary who succumbs to temptation sleeps with a prostitute then returns home only to later find out that he has contracted HIV/AIDS.
• The girl who went to the bar alone to reach out to prostitutes, eventually falls for one of them, becomes a lesbian, and turns from God.
• The married man who goes away to minster in a village, “falls in love” with a local woman, leaves his wife and kids and goes “native.”
• The teenager of a missionary who gets in with the wrong crowd and ends up living as a drug dealer and mafia type.

These are real life stories that have happened to real people working in Thailand and they are just a couple of many.  Some of the other stories (yes, there are more) are even more horrible, if you can believe that.

So, why do I even mention these examples?  

Because I am sure that you have your own “concrete” examples of evil, even similar to these stories, right there in your own back yard.

Yet when it comes to our own lives, we can convince ourselves that we are immune.  When we think of “evil” and its manifestations, we think of something other than the “concrete.”  But if we thought about it for a minute, we would easily be able to find some very personal examples of real evil that we have encountered.

None of us are automatically immune.

That’s why the Scripture tells us, “Be sober, Be vigilant for your advesary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he MAY devour.”  I Peter 5:8

If you admit it, when you hear this verse your mind doesn’t immeditately go to the “concrete” example of this real threat.

It goes first to the abstract.  It goes to the rational, not the supernatural.

Jesus even tells his chief Apostle, Simon Peter, “Satan has desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail.” Luke 22:31-32

This is serious business.  

We are in a real battle with real enemies that seek our lives.  Jesus calls our common enemy “the thief” and says that his only reason for coming is to “steal, kill, and destroy.” John 10:10

Yet we have been promised protection and grace as long as we choose to walk in it. (see Psalm 91).  We still need to have our spiritual armor on daily, praying always. (see Ephesians 6).  We still need solid boundaries in our personal lives that help us steer clear of compromising situations.  We need community and accountability to help us stay grounded.

Finally, we need to keep some “hits close to home” examples in our minds to help us rightly define evil so that we can see it when its coming.

What do you think?  How does this hit close to home for you? 

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I have been told by my friends that the one food everyone orders, myself included…without having to think about it, is Phad Khrapaow or Stir Fried Thai Basil.

It usually comes in Chicken or Pork, with or without a fried egg on top, and always over plain white rice.

Thai people call Phad Khrapaow the “food without having to think” or something like “อาหารไม่ได้คิด”.  You can order it at just about any road side stand that has a wok.

I eat it a few times a week on average.

Next time, you are visiting a Thai restaurant in the West, try it.  The meat may be a little nicer and not as chopped up, but hopefully it will have the same flavor.

If you are in Thailand, you haven’t really eaten Thai food until you have eaten the “food without thinking.”

Real Thai Food: "Pad Khrapaow Kai" Straight From the Local Street Stand

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• Being a person who takes risks just for the sake of taking risks.  They don’t think about the negative consequences.
• Being a person who watches life pass them by because they’ve become paralyzed at the face of risk.  They don’t think enough about the potential reward.

Both are potentially dangerous don’t you think?

What are some areas in your life where you are needing to face the challenge?

Wherever you may be today, here are some great quotes to inspire you in your journey:

Here are my Top 20 Quotes on Taking Risks:

1.  And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. – Anais Nin

2. There’s as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something.- Trammell Crow

3. A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.- Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

4. We cannot discover new oceans until we have the courage to lose sight of the shore. – Muriel Chen

5. Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. – African proverb

6. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic. – Unknown

7. It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.- Elinor Smith

8. There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who ask, “What happened?” – Casey Stengel

9. If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.- Ivan Turgenev

10. We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. – Henry David Thoreau

11. The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.- Goethe

12. Opportunity dances with those on the dance floor. – Unknown

13. You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that is where the fruit is.- Will Rogers

14. The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there’s gold in letting go of them.- John Seely Brown

15. There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.- John F. Kennedy

16. There is no security in life, only opportunity.-Douglas MacArthur

17. To win, you have to risk loss.- Jean-Claude Killy

18. If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone. – John Maxwell

19. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.- T.S. Eliot

20. Progress always involves risk. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”-Frederick B. Wilcox

What risks are you facing or have you faced?  How do you hope it will work out?  How did it work out for you?

Which one of these stuck out to you the most?  Do you have a favorite quote on taking risks that is not listed here? Share it!

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There are two key experiences that come up over and over again:

1. Love
2. Power

When it comes to foundations, there is no other foundation that can be laid but that which is already been laid, Jesus Christ.  (I Corinthians 3:11)

However, Jesus himself is the embodiment of these two major influential qualities.

• Jesus is Pure Love because “God is love” and Jesus is fully God.  He demonstrated his love by serving and laying down his life for all. (John 15:13)
• He is power through his resurrection from death, all power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. (Matthew 28:18)

When we meet Jesus through the Holy Spirit we don’t simply meet a good teacher or a nice doctrine, we meet love and power personified. (Colossians 2:9)

Pray For Every Person To Experience the Love and Power of God

The Bible tells us that without love all of our work for God is “nothing” and so are we.  (I Corinthians 13) But also, without power we are not fully demonstrating the reality of the risen Christ to the world.  We are not declaring the “full Gospel.”

The Bible also tells us that God anointed Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and with Power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him.  (Acts 10:38) He has called us to “follow” him, this verse is included along with another one about “greater works” (John 14:12).

Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.  (Hebrews 13:8) His love and his power is still being experienced and it is our duty to set the stage for more of this world to experience it!

We can talk methodology and doctrine all day, but at the end of it all stands just a few key questions.  

• Are we proclaiming Jesus Christ and His Good News?
• Are we bringing people to a place where they can experience the love and power of God that will change their hearts?

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.  (I Corinthians 4:20)

It is not a matter of a person encountering a good argument (apologetic) only, but more importantly, encountering a life altering experience with the living God.

So, I am asking and challenging myself:

• Are we proclaiming his goodness then demonstrating it by laying hands on the sick and hurting and seeing them recover?
• Are we praying bold prayers of deliverance over people who have lived in bondage and fear all of their lives?
• Are we stepping out in the Holy Spirit and letting him use us through the giftings he has provided for our use such as the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and the prophetic?
• Are we praying for people to have dreams, visions, and experiences of God revealing Himself in power?
• Are we serving people in such a way that they are amazed by how good God has been to them through us?

How are we setting the stage for the people to experience these things in their own lives more than we are looking for clever ways to answer their religious objections and use the correct methodology or approach?

To be sure, we need both; but I’m asking myself,

“What comes first and foremost”?  

That is what matters most.

PS: This is some exhortation I recently found from Indian Church Planters who have seen hundreds of thousands of churches planted in Northern India:

You will not see a movement without signs and wonders.  Ninety five percent of our house churches have signs and wonders.

Also some encouragement from Randy Clark:

When you pray for the sick, you are not required to heal everyone but you are required to love everyone. Everyone should leave feeling love.

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Or are you on adventure with God, on journey, on quest?

In the video below, Missional thinker Alan Hirsch challenges us to go beyond the safe comfortable middle class expression of our faith and take risks with God.

Are you simply a faith community or a communitas?  Be stirred…

What impacted you the most from this message?

via Alan Hirsch: Communitas, not Community from Verge Network.

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The reality is that I am building bridges with people and not walls.  Am I perfect at it?; as you will see, the answer is no. But I am working on it and when the right time comes, I am always bringing the truth of the Gospel to bear on my conversations.

Bridge over the River Kwai

I sometimes suppose that many of my critics are not actively engaged in ongoing conversations in the Thai language with Buddhists. They are people who live in Christian “bubbles” who are more content in their own incomplete knowledge rather than seeking out what people really believe and speaking directly to that rather than their own “straw men”.

Below is a recent conversation that I had with three monks at a temple here in Thailand.  The conversation was completely in Thai as you can tell by the monk correcting my use of tones in the Thai language!  But through my friend’s recording of the conversation, you can get a glimpse into my message and my way in Christ.

Here is the excerpt:

“We always start by asking the monk if he is doing well.  He always says the same thing.  My spirit is well, but my body is dying. He says this to show that he has found a way to overcome suffering in the state of impermanence.  Then the monk proceeded to explain to John how Thai has five tones, and so on, to help him say some things clearer.

From the introduction and asking the monk about how he is doing, John asked him, “do you believe human beings have a spirit?” The monk said yes, because Buddha taught this.  He said Buddha taught that we have 2 areas.  They are matter and mind.  He went on to explain again about the 5 existences which are: comprehension, mental formation, feeling, perception and consciousness.  These 2 are in two areas, called mind and matter.  Matter is about things you can comprehend, things that fit together.  These have to do with the 4 elements: earth, fire, water and air.  The next part he explained was the mind. He said it has to do with being conscience or consciousness.  Then he explained that with the mind there are 3 things that fit together.

He called this the factors or of mental formation.  The parts of the mind are feeling, perception or being able to know something and mental formation.  He said these 3 things come about when the spirit or conscience is there.  He mentioned that they also go away, or fail when the spirit or consciousness changes in a person.  These could be called the characteristics of consciousness.   The monk called them the factors of the mental state.  He said that humans have a spirit and therefore have consciousness.  He said if we did not have this we would not be able to live life.

Then Ron asked, “When we do, what happens to our spirit after we die, what kind of state is it in, does it live eternally?”  The monk liked this question and said, “This is a very important teaching of Buddha.”  He said that we need to ask, what the spirit is becoming, because it enters into the circle life.  He mentioned that the spirit of a person goes to different levels. He wanted to change the focus of where is the spirit to what is the spirit after it enters the circle of life.  He said every spirit enters the plain of conscienceless.  This plain has 4 levels.  There is the sensual plain, the physical plain or the place of using the concentration and meditation, the formless plain and the unlimited plain.

Then he started to explain that if you are evil you go to the Buddhist hell.  If you were a good person and made lots of merit, then when you are born again, you will come back as a human being.  If you were really good you can become a Buddhist god, or angel in one of the 6 levels of the Buddhist heaven.  Then if you’re really special and did a good life you can go to another level with in the 6 levels that has 16 levels and you will have more peace and happiness than a Buddhist god.  If you use concentration and meditate and use your mind to awaken or open up your consciousness then you can go to the next level that has 3 levels within it.  This is the formless place.  This is for the people who are enlightened and they arrive at a place of not being born again. They no longer exist and no longer suffer.  This is the end result of following the 4 noble truths.

Which state that we suffer, desire leads to suffering, we can get out from under suffering and Buddhism is the way out of this suffering?  When a person goes to this limitless place, they are going to be with absolute truth, or be absolute truth.  They arrive and become this absolute truth.  He said, you say, when a person dies, where do they go?  I ask do they really die.  He is said if you’re a normal average person, you need to be born again over and over, but if you have arrived to enlightenment, then you don’t need to be born again.  You are put out and you are in a place of no suffering and have overcome craving and attachments.  You ask, “When we die, where do we go?” We ask, when we die, what are we going to be.”

Then he went back to the 5 consciousness and the fact that a spirit of a person does not actually be made new again, but that if the spirit come from nature and it keeps developing into something more advanced or something like that.  I was getting a little lost at this point in his explanation.  He related a person’s spirit to age, or getting older.  It just runs out of time, and then it is born again and does this over and over again.  He said the moment a person dies, a new something or someone comes into being.  He said that animals don’t really die, they just change their condition and become some other animal.  He went on to talk about the 5 existences again and who we can become and about the 4 places of formlessness.

Then John asked, if we are in the process of this, which the monk called soullessness, how do we do it ourselves?  How do we depend on our selves like Buddha said to do if we are soul-less (anatta)? 

The monk said, you need to follow 3 things, higher morality, higher concentration and learning higher wisdom.   Monk said our spirit is a natural thing, but we can use this to practice these 3 things. The Monk said we can control our spirit, or our consciousness by the practical out working of these 3 areas and we do this on our own, not by any outside help.   He went on to say the person who is not interested in this receives bad conduct and causes bad effects. But a person can change if they follow these 3 things.  Then he gave an example of a person who was a heavy drinker.  When they see the damage it does and the foolishness of it, they stop. They stop because they are practicing these 3 things to some degree.  He said a person can develop the consciousness and become stronger and it will change a person’s mind and they will start to think of good things and stop doing bad things and this will effect who they are the next time they are born again.

He said in the end good and bad are things that are impermanent and deal with the physical world.  So, he said if you’re still alive, you need to practice these things. Once you die you will not have to.  For those who don’t try, they will not come back as a better person.  He talked about good morality, good concentration to make the mind pure.  He mentioned the idea of being active and applying things.  He said if we continue to live in these truths we will see what the truth is and we will understand the true reality of all things.  We will understand the laws of nature and we will know what is what.  He said there are 4 things we get teaching from, or instruction, principals to live by. They are nature, law of nature, actual truth verses absolute truth.  His idea of absolute truth is about ideas and things that are not affected by desire and suffering.  It could be said more like, spiritual, or mystical truth, verses the physical world kind of truth.  He said science is conventional truth because it is based on supposition.

John asked if the spirit of a person is impermanent (anatta).  The monk said yes.  John went on to ask if a person has soullessness and is impermanent, how can they depend on themselves to save themselves from suffering, or getting ahead in life. 

John went on to explain everything as dependency on something else.  He used the word picture of a boat being dependant on water to work.  The monk went on to explain eating, living, doing things we need to do to live is not dependency on those things; we do those things in the right ways.  He went on to explain that John did not know the Thai words very well.  He said it is more about right contact and working in and doing the 8 fold path of Buddhism in one’s life.  This is not dependency, but it is the practical working out of getting out from under suffering and living one’s life the right way.  Klang my friend who takes me to the temple, went on to explain that the picture John used is a Thai idiom that means the same thing as what Jesus said about that we are love our neighbor as our self and love God with all our heart and mind.

He told John he basically did not understand what they were talking about.  John emphatically said, yes I do, I understand every word you are saying.  Then John went on to explain that if it is like you say, then I don’t think human kind can really help themselves very well.  I could have not got that part very clearly.  Then the novice monk went on to explain again the idea of reincarnation and that it is just the way it is and it happens like a law of nature.  He used the florescent light as an example how it turns on and off so fast you can’t see it an in the end it give off light. He said it is like that.  It just is a system that works in nature and if it is broken or slow it down,  will not work.  Something like that, not sure about all he said.

John then asked the monk if humans were “tiang” (actually I said “tiang ter”), which I am not sure what he meant, but I think he was asking the question about human kind being different from animate to in animate things. (I was actually talking about “tiang” being something unchanging)

He basically explained yes, humans are and animals are alive, but have soullessness and can go to the state of unlimitedness, where a table or a book cannot.  The monk said we all start out with no bad karma, then it happens when we have ignorance.  Then he went on to explain at times we have peace like when sitting at the beach or under a shade tree, but then we are bothered by our metal formation process and then suffering is born in us again.  He suggested that we take the time to purify our minds and we can overcome this kind of thing.  In the end he said the goal of Buddhism is to no longer have to suffer through being born and dying again.  He said this is absolute truth and happiness.  He said it is true peace.  He said that the peace in Nippon is not the kind of peace we have on earth.  He said we can experience this kind of super peace through meditation and through following the ways of Buddha.

He said that excitement is not really true happiness or peace.  He said that happiness is not really peace.  It is more of an idea of calmness.  He said this kind of peace comes with right knowledge and wisdom and development of the inside.  He said it is not about stuff, or doing things in the physical world, that all has an ending will not last.  It is more of a deliverance from these cravings and dependencies of the world.  He said we can do this hear and now.  He said it is a place of pure existence, a place of pure peace and nothing can get to you.  Your soul has been put out and you no longer have to suffer.  This state of being is being in Nippon here and now on earth.

John asked, is Nippon (Nirvana) a real thing? The monk said yes, very real, it is absolute truth.  He went on to tell John that it has many names also.  Monk went on to say it is being pure, deliverance and super peace.  Monk said that other nations and peoples have different names for it, but it is the same place or state of being.  He said the Buddha did not say it was a place of peace,  but more of a place of no suffering.  So, when we don’t have any more suffering we have true peace.  He said for the most part people just want more peace, more happiness, but don’t really want to get rid of suffering.

John said that he likes the way the monk teacher explained the way Nippon is.  John said when you explained this, I thought of Rev 21 a description of Heaven in the Bible.  John went on to explain that the Creator has a kingdom and he is the king of kings.  He said it has everything you just said and it is found in the Bible.  But, it is not a formless place; it is the kingdom of God.  It will have no more dependency on ourselves and we will have super peace there too.  It says there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more broken bodies,  but perfect spiritual bodies.

John said this is absolute truth.  He said when I think of God, the creator I think that He is absolute truth.  John went on to say that he agreed with the monk that people are anata (actually I said or meant to say that they are “mai tiang” or unstable in contrast to God who is unchanging)  He went on to say that God has given human being a great experience in being able to know Gods love and power of The Holy Spirit.

He went on to say that we (humans) are very special and great worth and we are not like anything God has created.  He went on to say that we are made in the image of God no matter what part of the world we are from and that we have great worth in the eyes of God.  John went to say that the Bible teaches humans have a spirit and he agrees with this.  That we have ability to think, mood and we can decide on things.  John went on to say that we have a brain like the monk was talking about and we live in bodies that are changing little by little.  He said that our bodies change but our spirit does not.  Then we read in the Bible in Revelation 21.  

Before we read Klang brought up a paper he brought with him about how people have changed into different people through reincarnation about a Chinese, Indian and an American.  He wanted to prove that people come back as others and that these stories were about people who could remember events but never had seen or knew about them.

Then I read Revelation 21. Then John asked the monk if he has ever heard this before?   Then John asked him, what do you think of this description of heaven?  The monk said, there are many things in there that is the same as Nippon, such as no more suffering, but only peace for ever.  No more pain.  But, the difference that the monk saw was that heaven in the Bible is a place.  

But, Nippon is not a place. It is there so that no one will have attachments.  He agreed that a person could get out from suffering just like a Buddhist if they went to the heaven that the Bible explained.  Monk said that Nippon is not a place and there is not owner of it.  It is different than what the Bible explains.  He said the main thing is that one is a place and other is not a place, other than that they sound the same to him.  He said “John, if God is a personality and has a place that is ok, not wrong, it is what you believe and your faith and it is good.”  He said for us Buddhist, we don’t go to a place, we go to Nippon and this is the way of nature, or the natural way to think.  Then John brought up that Buddha was alive around 500 years before Christ.   He went on to say that Buddha said he lived many lives and he was part of this world.

John went on to say, what if there was a Lord who was not part of this world (above it all) and he knows more than any of us have ever heard or experienced.  He went on to try and explain that we don’t see everything. We only see pieces of truth.  Suppose there was a Lord who knew all things perfectly and he wanted to show this to the human race even though we don’t understand it all.  John went on to say, if this Bible is true we should study it, know it and believe it.  If it is false, we should throw it away.  He went on to say many people have not heard the truth in the bible including many Thai people.  He said Thai people don’t like to think about things (in general).

Then the Monk started to talk, he said I have studies Christianity and Taoism and Islam.  I did this before I became a monk. John asked him, did you read books about the Bible, or have you ever really read the Bible for yourself?  He said I studied the import teachings of the Bible that others wrote.  John asked again, but you have never read the Bible for yourself?  The monk said, I studied the important parts and I saw that every religion teaches that we are to be good people and do good things.  The monk went on to say that Buddhism you can see cause and effect.  You can see the truth in it and how it affects the regular person.  Don’t need to talk about who started it or about ideas until you have seen the absolute truth of it. Monk said; don’t need to be caught up in ceremonies and tradition.  But, need to see the truth of it and how it affects our life.

Then Klang asked if we would be eating in heaven?  John explained all we will need, God will provide and His kingdom is coming into the world again.  He mentioned that God is going to make a new world and a new heaven and a new nature too.

John said that everything we see in the world today is cursed.  It is beautiful, but it is cursed.  He said animal eat each other and everything is dying.  But, God did not create it for this reason.  He created it for our pleasure and created us to know Him.

God does not want us to suffer anymore John said, but if we do not listen to God then we will end up suffering.

John said when a person decides to turn away from God that is the decision of the person.  God will separate himself from this person.  John reminded them that Buddhism teaches about hell and God has created a place for his enemies.  John told them that this enemy is called Satan.  John said God is going to throw the fallen angels and everyone who is an enemy of God in this place. I mentioned that God did not make hell for people, but for Satan and the fallen angels.  He created us to know him, not be separated from Him.

Then Klang asked:  “So, if Thai people don’t believe in Jesus, are they going to go to hell?”  John explained we are cursed with sin and we are heading that direction anyway.  He said God has provided a way to be saved. Then he used the illustration of many swimmers some go far some don’t but in the end they all drown without some outside help. (I used this illustration to show how some could swim only for 5 minutes, some for a few hours, some for a few days.  The monks may feel superior because they can swim for days while others can only swim for minutes, but in the end, we all need a rescuer because we fall short of being able to save ourselves.)

Klang said:  “I want to explain something; we do receive help from others as Buddhist, but we take responsibility for our own actions.  We do not let others take responsibility for us.  He said a Thai person would receive the help if he was drowning, and this would be good news. But, Thais take the responsibility themselves.”  Then he asked, “ are there mansions in America?  We said yes.  He said, every place has mansions and nice things, therefore heaven is here and now. Klang reviewed the Gospel and he said you are saved simply by faith, right?”  He went on to compare that Buddha did something similar and that it is not a problem for a Buddhist to believe in Jesus, he is a good man too.”

John went on to talk about God being the only true God and human kind has been tricked to worship all kinds of other things. Klang went on to talk about Jesus and who he is in the Bible and all he claimed to be, and asked, what do we do as a Christian? What did Jesus say about Karma?  What did Jesus say about how to get out from under being born again?

John went on to say that we don’t see the spiritual and that God did the ultimate by sending his Son as a gift to love us and save us from sin. That is true love, real love and talked about His forgiveness.  John said as believers in Christ we develop ourselves, but we cannot do it ourselves, we need God to do this in us.  

We can’t trust ourselves (depend on ourselves alone).  We trust in Christ and then we can do things, good things in the power of Christ, in the Holy Spirit.  That the Holy Spirit is our helper and our spirit is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. We can communicate with God.  We are operating in (our own ideas and thinking), but God speaks through his Spirit.

Klang said that when we study Buddhism we are studying spiritual truths.  Then he went on to read the different stories of the people who remembered and saw things in their former lives.

The monk went on to explain that when we sleep, in a subconscious state, that we are effected by other karmas from other lives that mix with ours.  Therefore we can remember other people’s lives that we have never heard about before.  He said we can’t really understand this; it had to do with subconscious activity and it coming out in our conscience state.

Monk went on to say that Buddha knew these things and understood them because of the many lives that he lived.  He said Buddha had a kind of magic that he could see in the future or see things far away, or could see or know what animals would turn into when they died at times.  He could see the process of reincarnation of animals and people at times.  He understood and discovered the circle of life and why we suffer.  He said Buddha did not have the desire to become like we want to become, in the Buddhist thinking, a small god in a place with a big God.  He wanted to be free of the cycle of birth, pain oldness and death and doing that over and over again. He wanted to be in the state of Nippon and be free of birth again.  He wanted to be free of death and decay and pain.  Monk said the Buddha knew about the stars, universe everything because of all the lives he lived and that he was enlightened.

Monk said: The most important thing we need to know is how to get out from under suffering and advance in that process.  The monk believes if there was not suffering present, there would be no problems, only peace.  For example he said, if you’re hungry you crave food.  But if you’re satisfied with what you have and know what is what and don’t crave, you don’t suffer therefore you don’t do wrong.   He used the idea of a super star needing to use drugs to get ahead in life, even though he as everything.  In the end he dies from it.  On the outside he has everything he needs but in the inside he is suffering.

John went on to explain that there are spirits that lie to us and trick us and they can give us information that is not true.  He related a story when he was in the Military and how these spirits lie and tricks us (Actually I told a story of how familiar spirits work like soldiers assigned to an individual.  They know everything about that person and his life.  If that person dies, they can deceive others through their knowledge of the person thus making them think that they are being visited by the person through someone else or have been that person in a previous life.)

John mentioned that there are fake miracles.  He said that the Bible tells us that there will be many who will do illusions and trick us with fake miracles.  John said that these things that you have read are real, but how do you know that they come from?  We believe they come from a demon, a fallen angel.  Ron helped John explain that we should not talk to dead, or we could receive a curse.  John went on to say that Buddha believed in spirits and did things to protect himself.  Klang said, he did this to protect himself from desire, not really from bad spirits.  He said that there are many things we should not believe in this world.

The monk started  to talk and explained that many strange things are happening now days that are fake.  They are started by religious teachers.  If a person has an inside wisdom and an understanding of how nature works, this person will not be tricked.  A child will be tricked. But, a person with experience will not be tricked.  I asked where did this wisdom come from. He explained it comes from inside us, comes from nature.  It is just there, it is in us.  It is not from a book or a technical source.  It comes from our former life, from our karma.  The monk went on to say that many people know things from many other lives that have been lived because of the concentration and working out the teaching of Buddha.  He said that a person can overcome desire this way too.

John went on to say that we have wisdom and knowledge that is higher than nature.  We believe in the Creator that is outside of this system.  When we trust in Him, he is higher than nature and we will get a higher wisdom.  He went on to say that Jesus is the way to this (wisdom).

Nain, asked, “If we don’t have the chance to read the Bible, we will not go to Heaven right?”  John went on to say, I don’t know, but knows, and that God will judge a person and he will be held accountable.

Nain went on to say that we can find wisdom and knowledge in nature we really don’t need to read the tip taka (Buddhist scriptures) or the Bible.  John asked him, “can you create a star or make an animal”?; to make the point that the Creator is above nature and natural things.

Nain went on to explain each piece of nature has its place and is under the laws of nature.  John went on to explain that we cannot create an eye, humans cannot do it to help him see the idea of God being a creator. He used the example of a doctor who studies all his life, but he cannot make an eye, only God could do this.

Nain went on to say that humans can do incredible things and can create a fake limb.  This shows that humans can take care of themselves.  Said that people need to rely on themselves if they don’t we will die.   People create things to live, like hospitals or air planes and other things in order to relay on themselves. John went on to say, the humans do take care of themselves (in every day life and take responsibility for themselves too), but there is a limit to man’s knowledge and abilities.

Ron went on to say that God can do anything, but cannot sin. The nain asked  ”why did Jesus come and do all of this when he did”?  Ron answered that he came at the best time and it was in Gods timing.  The nain asked, if Jesus came at just the right time, why are there so many different religions?  Why doesn’t every one believe in Christ?  Why is there is war?  Why did Christians kill Muslims and Muslims kill Christians?

John broke in and asked why do Buddhist (called that by themselves) have addictions? Why do they drink and do bad things. Then he quoted Romans 3:23. (We have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God).  (Yet, ) He said people in Thailand are not interested in God.  He said for a person to refuse God (not recognize, not give honor, ignore our Creator King) is the worst sin.

Nain went on to say, if this is true about Jesus, then Asians people are in trouble and don’t have a chance to go to heaven. He said this means people have no hope and they are lost. (Good observation)  Why wasn’t Jesus born in Thailand because people here have great faith, this is not fair.  I explained God made us and he can do whatever he wants to do he is our owner.

John had the nain monk read out loud out of Acts (17)  about God over looking times (of ignorance) so that he wants every person to have salvation. The monk brought up before Christ came, there was no Christianity. What happened to people before Christ came?  What happened to people before the Bible came into the world? (I quoted Acts 17 where Paul says that God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he commands men everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world through Jesus Christ.)

Nain said Buddhism is not like this.  Not necessary to do all of this.  It is more about if you are good. If you’re good you can find what you need in you and be better.  John brought up the point if you don’t do the 5 moral laws of Buddhism, he said that Thais are going to Buddhist hell (according to Thai Buddhist teaching.) John said that all of  Thailand is not following even the 5 precepts of Buddha (and not really interested).   He mentioned (as an example) that Thailand is number one in Speed addiction in Asia: Yaa Ba.

Buddhist monk broke in and asked if he could tell a story.  He told a story of an American who says he is a Christian.  He talked about growing up in the church and smelling the incense at the temple and he called it the smell of hell.  He heard this song called come inside and he was reminded of the Buddhist temple and he started to go and he found peace and quietness.  He taught or studied at Chulakorn  University.  John asked if this man had a vision.  Monk said he lived in Thailand for many years.   He studied Buddhism when he lived here. He was very interested in different religions.  He said Buddhism was quiet and peaceful.  He visited 200 temples and found peace and a difference.  He calls himself a Christian.  He did not compare like we are doing.

John said this (we were talking about meditation) is good and a good experience.  ( I talked about how meditation could be used to clear the mind and empty ourselves so that we could focus on the right thing.  Scripture speaks of meditating on the Word of God, etc)

Suppose we go to the beach to meditate and a flood comes, would we be saved (through meditation)?  Monk explained meditation is to develop mental formation and wisdom, not to be checked out in an altar state of mind.  To help us live our lives in wisdom and knowledge.  Sometimes it is for peace and quiet our spirits.  If we are to relay on ourselves we need to have wisdom and light in how to do it.

John said that when he reads the Bible he sees promise of a spiritual flood coming into the world. ( I was speaking of judgement and that we must prepare ourselves in truth for it)  He said (that even the) Buddha said in 5000 years, the world will end.  John said, how will we be have salvation and be saved from this?  We don’t know what the future holds, but we know what the promises of God are.  We are going to see more wars when we read in Mathew.  In the end Jesus is coming back.  It is the time to read and know the truth in the Bible.  Not read books about the Bible, but read the Bible its self.  In the end, every nation will be there before God. (standing to be judged)  John suggested that the monk should read the book of John to understand more.

Klang said that as Buddhist we will be at peace because we all die and if we know the truth of how things work we will not being worried.  John said he has peace about all God has said, and we should all be ready (prepared) for the things to come. (If we prepare, we don’t have to be worried or afraid.  The preparation is “putting on Christ.” Klang understood that Jesus Christ is the parachute that saves us from the coming destruction.)

John went on to try and explain the need to be ready by using the illustration of if we were all in a plane and some had a parachute and some did not.  If we had a parachute to give someone who didn’t we should give it to them.  If they don’t want it, we are sad, but we should try and give it to him.

Klang said if you really know Buddhism you won’t be afraid to die.  John went on to say that the Bible teaches that we have only one life to live and we will go before God and be judged.  Now is the time to respond. 

Klang said Jesus said we are to love our others as ourselves.  This is enough to go to heaven.  John said that to love God is more important and then we can (truly) love our neighbor.  We can receive wisdom from the Holy Spirit and believe.

So, what stands out to you?  Where do you see points of agreement or disagreement in this sample of one conversation out a many, many others not posted?  Do see the way of being a patient listener versus the only one doing the talking?

You can read other conversations on my friend Ken’s blog here.

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Update 5 Oct 2011: Flooding has ceased, clean up has begun, and life is returning to normal here in Chiang Mai.

Previous story:  The Mae Ping River has overflowed its banks here in Chiang Mai and the rainy season is not yet over.  More rain in the area will have disastrous affects on the areas located down river.  Here are a few pics and video I shot from the 28th-30th.  Images may take a second to load.

Mae Ping River South of Center of Town

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Picture 1 of 22

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How could it practically play out in the world according to the Buddhist teaching?  

Let the disciple answer for himself.  The quote below is from the Satriputra (Sariputta), the chief disciple of Gautama, called the Buddha.

“Imagine this scene: a layman sits in front of his house, eating a fish from the pond behind the house, holding his son in his lap. The dog is eating the fishbones and the man kicks the dog.

Not an extraordinary scene one would think, but the Ven. Sariputta comments:

The Chief Disciple of Gautauma called "Buddha", Sariputta

“He eats his father’s flesh and kicks his mother away,
The enemy he killed he dandles on his lap,
The wife is gnawing at her husband’s bones,
Samsara can be such a farce.“

What had happened?  Shariputta goes on to explain…

• The man’s father died and was reborn as a fish in the pool, the layman caught his father, the fish, killed it, and was now eating it. .
• The layman’s mother was very attached to the house so she was reborn as the man’s dog.
• The man’s enemy had been killed for raping the man’s wife; and because the enemy was so attached to her, he was reborn as her son.
• While he ate his father’s meat, the dog – his mother – ate the fish bones, and so was beaten by her son.
• His own little son, his enemy, was sitting on his knee.”

What do you think?    

If you believe in Samsara and rebirth, you must also take the authority of the highest disciple who taught this analogy and possibility as well.

A “farce” indeed.

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Ignorance:  Lacking knowledge or awareness. 

This is exactly what happened recently here in Chiang Mai, Thailand when students dressed up in full Nazi costume and regalia from the Third Reich and marched in to their school with pomp and pride, even carrying plastic machine guns.

The foreign parents and staff were absolutely shocked, but the Thai staff “did not understand the controversy.”  They kids thought it was simply “fashion.”

Granted, Hitler did co-opt a Hindu/Buddhist symbol, twist it, and turn it into the symbol of his armies, so maybe there is some confusion by the Thai students when they see the swastika being used in popular culture.  (I’m really reaching here, aren’t I?) But this is simply unexcuseable, especially for the Thai teachers to not “understand the controversy.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights NGO.

 “It is difficult to calculate the hurt such a display inflicted on survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and the families of all victims of Nazism. There can be no justification for such an outrage to emanate from place of learning,” he said.

“The Nazis were responsible for the Holocaust, history’s worst crime, and had they prevailed during World War II, their racist ideology would have eventually targeted all  races the Nazis deemed ‘inferior’, including Asians,” Rabbi Cooper added.

“From the visual evidence, it is clear that this Nazi celebration could not have taken place without the knowledge and cooperation of the school administration.”

Ignorance of history in school systems can be global problems.  Yet this is a clear and amazing example of what many of us who have lived in Thailand for a little and dealt with the Thai school system (my two boys go to a Thai school) have come to understand;

Thai students are generally ignorant of many KEY events in world history.

Would it be too much to say that they are ignorant of any history outside of Thailand?

I think the horrible history of what the Nazis did to the Jewish people should be a high priority on the history list, don’t you think?  6 million Jews died in the ovens of Nazi Germany, many others who tried to protect them died along with them.

The Jewish people are a people group as old as the Chinese (over 1 billion strong) and Indians (over 1 billion strong).

Yet how many Jews are left in the world today?  About 14 million.  Anti-semitism has been a destructive force in world history like no other.

This is not the first time that an incident like this has happened in a Thai school, believe it or not.  This time it was a Catholic run school too!  Yet in 2007, the Thewphaingarm School in Bangkok had to apologize for the exact same thing!

I love Thailand and the Thai people.  I think the Thais know that they have a problem with their school system, (see here for one example and here for another) and that it needs a complete overhaul if Thailand is going to compete in the global future.

Maybe they can start with the topic of the Holocaust.

Watch this shocking short documentary about Hitler, the Nazis, and us.

Full Story Here

*As a Christian leader living in Thailand, I stand with other ministers clearly condemning this action and call for the school officials and teachers to issue a humble and public apology.

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Missionary: It is a term used to describe a missional person who crosses cultures and other boundaries to bring the Gospel where it is not.

All are called to live a missional life, but not all are called to be missionaries.

Make sense?  Some would like to blur the terms, but as Stephen Neill once said,

“when missions (and missionary) is everything, then missions is nothing.”

Why missional?  Because your neighbors, family, co workers, and people you come in contact with each day need the grace of God found only in Jesus Christ. 

Why missionary? Because nations, over 6,000 people groups totaling over 2.5 billion people, have yet to taste of the goodness of God’s Good News of Jesus.  Jesus has yet to receive the nations as his promised inheritance, even though the Commission was given over 2000 years ago.

My personal life:

When I worked as a US Navy Corpsman as a new believer, I was missional.  When I worked at a hospital taking care of the terminally ill, taking them to the bathroom and bathing them each day, I was missional.  When I worked as a personal assistant to a young guy with cerebral palsy, I was missional.  When I worked 14 hour days, 6 days a week in sales to take care of my family, I was missional.  When I served the people of my community and reached out, I was missional.

I was a believer and my life demonstrated that reality right where I was.  When people got to know me, they got to know my story, and my Great God.

But when the right time came, I became a missionary.  I crossed from America to Thailand with my family.  It was not a random thing, but a calling that I had in my heart from God Himself.  I prepared myself beyond my “every day” life with God.  I learned a language and studied a new religion so I could build bridges with the people in my new nation.

You may never get this kind of calling, but you can play a key part by sending, praying, supporting.

If you are a believer in Jesus, you can/should be on mission.  It doesn’t matter if you are a house wife with five kids, a mechanic, a business man, a store clerk, a student, a farmer, or any other profession you can think of.  You may even be unemployed! But you can/should be on mission with God.

• You have a story.  You should look for opportunities to share it.
• You have strength. You should find a way to serve others in Jesus’ name.
• You have a talent or ability. You can bless a community of believers.
• You have a family. They need you to lead them Spiritually.
• You have finances. You can use them to touch people locally and help fulfill God’s global purposes.

You have a ministry, now, right where you are.  

Ministry means service, Ephesians 4 calls it “works of service.” It was Martin Luther who once said,

“God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does.”

So, even though you may not be a “missionary”, we are all called, as disciples, to be with God on mission; to be “missional.”

What about you?  How have you seen you own life as being on mission with God?  What has it looked like for you personally?

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I took the liberty of collecting some of the best quotes and posting them here for you guys and gals.

The conference, hosted by @JohnPiper, featured key missions speakers like Ed Stetzer, Michael Oh, David Platt, Michael Ramsden, and others.

Through 140 characters or less, you can get a quick taste of what was being said through the lives of these men of faith and let it stir you like it did me.

First up…

Ed Stetzer:

• Jesus’ ministry is linked to serving the marginalized. But actions are distractions if we forget to seek & save the lost.
• We must preach justice but it will never be complete until we preach Jesus.
• Churches will look different wherever it’s taking place but they shouldn’t get distracted from Gospel centrality.
• Hold your church models loosely and your Gospel firmly.
• Styles of music & clothes don’t much matter. Repentance & reconciliation really matters.
• The “how” of missions is shaped by the who, when, and where of the culture.
•  Contextualization is not making the Gospel palpable, but making the Gospel understandable
•  There are more than 584 unengaged, unreached peoples in North America.
•  The majority of church goers are not engaged in any meaningful ministry. They come for the show.
•  We must do justice, but it’s not complete unless we preach Jesus & we can’t preach Jesus faithfully unless we’re doing justice.
•  We can’t love Jesus and not love the nations.
•  Don’t trivialize the Great Commission by ignoring the nations.
•  If I blog about controversy, lots of interaction. If I blog about missions & the nations, readership plunges.
•  Don’t let your church be a cul de sac on the great commission highway.
•  There is an ethno-linguistic thread throughout all of Scripture. God sent Israel out to the nations.
•  We’re all sent, the only question is where and among whom.
•  All Christians are called to live on mission. We are all sent – & are called to live in light of that mission.
•  We are SENT. John 20:21
•  One of the greatest problems in church planting is getting people to leave good churches.
•  Too many Christians want to be customers/consumers of their church.
•  We need congregations full of people who will quit being customers and start being missional, Spirit-empowered co-laborers.
•  One thing you can do today. Say, “Jesus, here I am–send me. Spirit, give me power.
•  Short-term missions done right: Leave behind connections that strengthen the cause of the gospel.

David Platt:

• Short term missions done right is a key part of my discipleship. 2% of a year there transforms the other 98% here.
• Short-term missions done right: launches people into evangelism & missions. Makes a difference at home & longterm faraway.
• Short-term missions done wrong: Hurts the cause of the gospel, or return home unchanged, ho-hum back to normal life.
• Being born into an unreached people group means you will likely live and you will die without hearing the gospel.
• I want all my people to be goers, taking the gospel to those who don’t believe. The question is; near or far.
• As you are totally surrendered to him and abiding in Him he will fulfill his purpose for you
• There are 2.5 billion people in the world who have enough knowledge of God to damn them to hell. We must go to them.
• Problem: the innocent guy in Africa does not exist!
• Why must we go with such urgency? The Gospel is ENOUGH to rescue them to Heaven.
• I have absolutely no record of you doing anything wrong” -God <- that is a scandal.
• We have a scandalously merciful savior – Is 6:6-7
• “We played a hell of a game.” The way we talk about Hell shows we have no idea what we’re talking about.
• Our problem is not that we’ve made some bad decisions. We are, at the core, cut off from God…and destined for Hell.
• OT trash talk: Is 36:18-20; God responds: Is 37:26-29
• There is no equal to our God: Isaiah 40:18; 45:5ff
• We have an incomprehensibly glorious God – Isaiah 6
• For God to be called “holy” doesn’t mean He’s just pure or righteous; it means He has no equal. -Platt
• We have an indescribably urgent mission. Our God warrants reckless abandon.

Michael Oh

• Missions is not something you are called to as much as it is what you are saved for.
• Missions starts with obedience & a passions for the things that God is passionate about.
• Missions – Unless someone biblically stops you, GO!!”
• This world would be TRANSFORMED if God would give you the grace & the guts to give GENEROUSLY to global missions.
• Lead us not into temptation’ applies to the idolatry of spiritual blessing as well.
• Your prayers are a reflection of your Heart. The Lord’s Prayer is a reflection of Jesus’ heart.
• The second part of the Lord’s prayer is not to just meet needs, rather to give provisions to fulfill our purpose.
• We cannot finish the mission by ourselves, thus Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come!”
• Christian – you have NOTHING to envy. YOU have Jesus Christ!
• God’s will is honored when God’s word is obeyed.
• Only America could have invented the term, ‘Disposable Income’ – we view everything above 10% as OURS.
• The Gospel is going FROM every land TO every land.
• God’s people should have a holy dissatisfaction about the worshiplessness of the World!
• My advice: Unless someone stops you, go. Consider going to the hard places.
• What would it look like if I valued the Gospel more than my life?

• You must wrestle with your calling; otherwise, when it gets hard, you will be tempted to walk away.
• God is more interested in getting us to the right place than we are in obeying him.
•  We must be ready to answer the objections against our faith
•  We’ll never be able to answer the hard questions thrown our way if we aren’t immersed in the Word.
•  Are we silent about the gospel because we secretly fear it isn’t true?
•  Is it possible we are morally ashamed of God, and that’s why we don’t go?
• Have we ordered our church life so that it’s convenient to do what *we* want?
• Is it possible church/Christian life is for convenience so we give a bit to send others to do what we don’t want to?
•  True #atheism cannot uphold the ‘myth’ of a purpose for mankind.
•  Because we live in an orderly universe, we can observe when God acts (immaculate conception)
•  Even if they mathematically showed the universe cld create itself fm/nothing, that doesn’t show God doesn’t exist
•  Zechariah prays for a child, and is skeptical of the angel; judgment comes on him
•  Anthony Flew couldn’t deny the statistical improbability of the universe coming about by chance
•  When thinking about missions, why do we think about countries thousands of miles away, and not our neighbors?
•  If outside financial consultants analyzed your church’s finances, what would they deduce is your focus?
•  As an evangelist, you need to make theology your hobby
•  Talk to the people in Heb 11 about being compelled by the Gospel regardless of the danger & inconvenience of the message
•  This is what I want to die for… to lay down my life for the sake of sharing the Gospel. Ramsden
•  Where is the commitment in the church? Where is the willingness to suffer for the sake of the Gospel? Ramsden
•  Is it possible that if you were perfectly honest, you would say you’ve been disappointed with your Christian life so far?
•  We will not lose a day of our life by going where/doing what God has called us. Danger is not an excuse for fear.
•  The reason God doesn’t want us to be somewhere is not because he doesn’t want us to die. We will all die.

John Piper 

• My prayer is that, Psalm 67 will be a calling in your life, if you do not already have a verse that you are rooted in.
• Ps. 67:1-2 is rooted in Gen. 12:2-3, and describes the foundation of world missions
• Abraham’s covenant was decisively fulfilled in Christ and is finally being fulfilled as the nations come to know Him.
• God’s grand plan was to use Israel to reach ALL nations Romans 11.
•  God’s purpose is to be known, praised, enjoyed, and feared by all the nations.
• Known as the One and Only true and living God.
• God doesn’t want to be known by a little clique. He wants to be known by the nations. That’s why he created them.
• It doesn’t help the cause of truth or love to say we worship the same God as Muslims do. We do not.
• If you don’t honor the true Son, you don’t honor God.
• God requires nothing less than perfection. The perfection of Christ is the only remedy for the whole world.
• The biggest problem on the planet is “Adam is my dad.” God’s remedy is for a global fall.
• God is a God of justice. Condemnation is solely on the basis of the revelation that they’ve had. Romans 1:18
• Gods aims to be known, praised, enjoyed and feared because of His sovereignty.
• God aims to be known, praised, enjoyed, and feared as a gracious God.
• The heart of the missionary message is God will save you by grace through faith in Jesus Christ his Son.
• If the grace of God were for Israel only, there would be no reason for gladness among the nations.
• God give his people wealth for the sake of the world’s worship. He blesses his Church w/ riches 4 the sake of reaching nations
• God didn’t design for u to give & lose, but 4 both u and the nations to gain. He means for you 2 receive double blessing
• I don’t mind the term missional, but we need full understanding of it. I want the young missional guys to get global mission – Piper

Nations Be Glad:

• “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” Romans 9:26
• “God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving” -Randy Alcorn
• The value of money is amazing when its invested in God’s kingdom
• Despite extreme persecution, there is still an estimated 400,000 Christians in North Korea
• How are we to enjoy life? Every gift is to be enjoyed as from God and not like a god.
• God cares more about how you react if you lose that property than the property itself
• “The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.” Oswald J. Smith
• One third of the world has ZERO witness of Jesus
• Never blow off statistics when statistics are real people for whom Jesus died.
• The great commission wasn’t given to a missions organization, it was given to the Church
• A love for lost souls is a very good secondary motivation for why we go. The first is the glory of God. We go for the Lamb of God.
• The need of the hour is for more missionaries. Not just any but the right kind.
• Jesus heals and he uses weak people
• The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time -Carl F.H. Henry
• Over 3,700 people groups are unengaged
• Let’s cut short the process of “should I go” and ask three questions: Have you seen that God? And have you felt that desperate and felt that kind of grace and did you hear God when he said whom should we send?
• Christ is more precious than being safe from insults. – John Piper
• God burns a portion of the Bible into you. It takes you and won’t leave you. Over time, it shapes & directs you.-Piper

David Sills:

• The world will not be reached by people who want to save their lives or be pampered.
• “Hearing the missionary call has a great deal to do with what you are listening for.”

David Sitton

• Mission is not a peacetime operation.
• When I talk about the mission being dangerous, it’s mainly dangerous for the devil.

David Harvey

• The newly planted church would take responsibility for their region and Paul go to a new area.
• Baptizing without teaching is birth without growth.
• How does the church respond to the Great Commission? By planting churches.
• Amazing: “I have many in this city who are my people.” Acts 18:10 – There weren’t any Christians there yet!

David Vanderstelt

• You’re not living where you’re living by mistake. He wanted a priesthood there…that’s you! 1 Peter 2:9
• Are you a worship leader? If not, you are either unregenerate or unaware of your calling. Matthew 5:16
• Learn how to love one another as a family so when someone looks in they know what the father is like
• This is the hardest thing you’re going to do in your life…and the best thing.
• There is no reason to have neighbors who have never heard the gospel!

Thanks to PerspectivesWCM and NationsBeGlad among others who tweeted during the conference.

Which one impacted you the most?

Support The Mission Through Online Giving Visit www.spreadtheflame.com

Support The Mission Through Online Giving Visit www.spreadtheflame.com

I don’t ever want to take it for granted.

I’m sure I have many times, but the Lord has been gracious to me and I still have experiences of when his goodness and love just overflow in my life.

It mainly happens for me during times of praise, worship, thanksgiving, and waiting on Him.

If you haven’t tasted and seen that the Lord is good, here and now, you are missing out on a key aspect of our faith, of even life itself; relationship, here and now, with God through his Spirit.

This is what we were made for!

Listen to the guys from Bethel Worship talk about their own experiences and how it has shaped them as worshippers.  Thanks to @cpugh for sharing.

Get the new Bethel Worship CD, Be Lifted High.  We love this CD at our home and play it often:

Support The Mission Through Online Giving Visit www.spreadtheflame.com