Missions Blog for Churches

by, Dan Iverson

For the record, I am for facilitation. In a sense, Scripture is calling us to facilitate when it says “equip the saints” to minister (Ephesians 4:11). Jethro, in effect, told Moses to facilitate (Exodus 18:17). D.L. Moody wisely said, “Don’t do the work of a thousand men. Put a thousand men to work!” We must be equipping increasing numbers of workers to multiply churches and reach the world.

On the other hand I have some concerns about the growing facilitation emphasis in missions circles. As a longtime missionary to Japan, I daily experience the strengths and weaknesses of both direct and facilitative church planting. I facilitate some indigenous Japanese workers by serving, supporting, and coaching from a distance while concurrently doing direct church planting as a missionary pastor working toward a church-planting movement (CPM) together with three younger Japanese co-pastors.

Praise God that facilitation in missions is increasingly possible. God promised to raise up indigenous “Gentile Levite” church planters (Isaiah 66:21), and is doing so worldwide. Christ is building His Church. There are increasing numbers of healthy churches with whom we can partner, serve, and facilitate as we pursue biblical, indigenous CPMs.

And in large part, facilitation is possible today from Brazil to Bangladesh because of foundations laid by missionaries through more direct evangelism in previous generations. In many places, however, those foundations are lacking. The national church is weak or nearly non-existent. There are not scores of indigenous church planters waiting to be facilitated. Evangelism and church planting by cross-cultural missionaries are still needed so that some day, by God’s grace, there will be indigenous movements with whom we can partner. (Click here to continue reading this article…)

by, Paul Taylor

Have you seen that map? It’s a map of the world designed by Patrick Johnstone, the author of Operation World. Each red dot on the map indicates one “unreached people group.” Very noticeable are the number of red dots all through Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. But the really stark, surprising, and impressive feature of this map is the fact that India is almost totally red—literally full of an enormous number of unreached people groups—both in the North (less reached) and in the South (considered more reached).

The question that we want to address in this article is: “What can or should we do to address these huge needs—not just in India, but the needs of all of these unreached groups of people?” “How can we best get the gospel to them?”

Recently, I visited Ang Stock, Cambodia. Here in this village of about 1,000 people a foreign missionary working with an MTW team has rented a house ($25 per month), and is learning the language, teaching the children, and dreaming of the future. This missionary has a goal of establishing churches in all of the nearby villages within bicycle range, the main mode of transportation. The missionary has been there only five months, but we had the privilege of meeting the first convert—a language tutor. God has called the missionary to this sort of mission work. We need to honor that call, help in any way that we can, and seek to leverage that ministry into an ever-expanding church-planting movement if at all possible.

The latter would most likely not happen unless the missionary raises up local people, trains them, and then facilitates a dozen or more local people to do the same thing. In 20 years could the missionary raise up 15 local missionaries who would start five to 10 village churches each? Very possible! One hundred churches could be started in 20 years. That is very worthwhile. And very worth supporting. Is that a church-planting movement? I would think so. But the church-planting movement will likely only become reality when this ministry moves to the stage of facilitating a good number of local church-planting missionaries. (Click here to continue reading this article…)

I’m excited about the new website just launched by MTW. It’s really more a site redesign. However, it’s such a helpful step in the right direction (helpful to the viewers) that it feels more like a complete site redesign. There are still some tweaks being made, so be patient (and feel free to let us know if you find anything that you think needs to be changed).

A few things I would like to highlight:

• Of cource the first thing is the new Church Resourcing section. On the main menu navigation, under “Resources” you will see Church Resourcing. I hope this will help to communicate to PCA churches how we can serve them.
• Second is the new global menu itself. It is slightly different, and hopefully more intuitive. We spent months and countless hours meeting to talk about how we could improve the previous site to make it easier on visitors to find what they came for.
• Next, check out the map in the header at the top. As you roll over different regions of the world you will see them change color. Click on those to go to that region and find out what is happening there. It’s nifty!
• Finally, as you view the various regions of the world, you will see a new navigation bar about midway down the page. These buttons will allow you to see ministry overview, current needs, cultural context, internship opportunities, and long term opportunities, all while staying on that page. This is a huge improvement from the way you had to go about finding the same info on ther previous site.

MTW has recently been able to purchase a camp in Guanajuato (whon-a-what-two), Mexico to be used for 1-2 week teams. Initially, these teams will focus on local outreach, but eventually the camp will be used to train teams to do cross-cultural ministry, as well as provide a location for Mexican churches to host retreats and training sessions for their churches. We also hope to launch a StreetChild ministry out of this location as well.

The first team is coming June 15, and will be comprised of 94 medical students and their professors. They will be doing local medical outreach. But there is much work needed to prepare the camp for them.

Would you consider coming this weekend (arrive May 29th or 30th), to help with a variety of tasks? Below is a list of things we hope to accomplish.

1. The whole camp ground needs to be reworked electrically.  There are open wires and outlets that need to be covered.
2. Windows need to be replaced
3. Painting
4. Tiling the floors
5. We would love to have a new roof, but the time may not allow that right now, unless we have a huge response.

We would like to ask you to be a part of this new work by helping us improve the dorms to bring them to a decent and safe standard.  But we are also hoping that you will catch our vision for this work and become a part of it in a long term relationship. For more information, please contact Opal Hardgrove.

The following is from a report by Paul Taylor, International Director of the Asia/Pacific region. This encouraging news demonstrates the power of the Gospel in a place where the soil is still very hard.

Tokyo, Japan—the MTW team here is the largest MTW team in the world, so one question was can we divide this into two or three teams.  The end result is that we will move to develop at least one other team in the next two years, and possibly a second.  One team with focus on the rapidly developing Chiba Prefecture (that is the current team).  A second will focus on the area between Chiba and downtown Tokyo.  And the third if we actually form it into a team will focus on developing a major center city church working in partnership with Redeemer church in NYC and the Presbyterian Church in Japan.

PRAY for wisdom and smooth transition as these changes are implemented.

Nagoya, Japan—This team has effectively developed a much needed new seminary to serve the church in Japan, and in particular to raise up new pastors and church planters for the Presbytery Church in Japan.  Since this is very much off and running now under the capable leadership of Dr. Michael Oh, the seminary or educational sector of this team will form a separate team which will focus on school development and any outreach coming out of that.  This was implemented immediately.

PRAY for Wayne Newsome and Michael Oh as they head these ministries which bring honor and glory to our Lord.

Clay Quarterman recently announced that MTW’s work in Ukraine is now completely led by nationals. This is extremely encouraging news to receive, and to a large degree, one of the biggest goals most MTW teams have. We don’t want our efforts to be dependent on more US missionaries being sent to sustain the work. Rather, when nationals are equipped to lead, they create a sustainable supply of future leaders for the work of the ministry. But this is not an easy thing to do. Clay writes on his website:

It was really strange at Presbytery. Right after we declared and celebrated the new Presbytery, there were some serious issues to be dealt with in confidence, and the Presbytery went into “closed session”. This meant that all non-members had to leave the room – including missionaries! So it was strange and wonderful to be excluded! But it shows the reality of what we have celebrated.

Clay continues:

We officially passed over all our authority to the national Presbyterian Church of Ukraine! This is a milepost, because it means God has raised up godly believers here who have banded together into 11 local churches, and it means God has raised up 11 spiritual leaders who have been trained, academically and practically. They have proven themselves in service to others, and we have turned over the whole thing to the Holy Spirit—to work in them, among them, and through them. It’s a BIG THING!

But, as the MTW-Ukraine team leader, Eric Huber, said, “This is not a birth, but a Bar-Mitzvah!” We have seen this coming, year-by-year. We planned for it and worked into it gradually, but it is still a moment to celebrate. We have officially “passed the baton”. Hallelujah! Praise God for His internal, spiritual, and maturing work!

So, what now? We are certainly not done, for the church continues to desire our help. In fact, I am one of the few “left behind” as a continuing part of Presbytery. Since I am president of their seminary, they want me as an official member. However, this also means I am put on various committees! (Continue reading this article by clicking here)

You can find out more about what the Lord is doing through MTW in Ukraine by visiting the MTW Ukraine Team Website.

I have not used this software, so I’m not recommending it, other than it is free so it may be worth a spin.

Compu-Books of Glendale, AZ is offering their Church Missions 3.0 software free to Christian churches and Mission organizations. This solution tracks church mission projects with missionary information, contribution records, communication log and reports. They give you a free single-user version – a contribution receipt for the donation is requested in return ($99 value). It’s available for Mac and Windows. Visit their website ‘products’ page to request your free copy.

MTW has issued a minuteman appeal to assist the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. Today we hear from our national partner there (an RTS graduate), and expect him to be a key component in our response there. But much prayer is needed.  Pray not only for the survivors as they attempt to recover, but pray that the military-government will relax and let outside agencies in to assist. You can read the appeal online here and find out more about how you can help.