Missionary Evangelist Freddy D. articulates the values that he has lived by in serving Jesus in the nations. Interviewed by Dustan Stanley of The Revolutionary Life.
These guys are some of my best friends in the world. We are of the same heart and passion for God’s glory and the name of Jesus among the nations.
You can visit them online at:
It’s really pretty simple.
We need more of the the green people to focus on helping the red people while they continue to reach out to their own people group.
Who will help us finish the work? We have the manpower and the funds available. But we don’t have enough skilled laborers willing to lay down their personal life agendas for the sake of those who have not yet heard the Good News.
I know we can’t do everything, but we all can do something. We all can play our part in not just reaching others around us but also reaching those far from our own world, those who have little to no access to the Message.
We may not be willing to go ourselves but we can help send someone who is willing and ready, we can play a part in advocacy, we can reach the nations at our own door steps. Each of us can and should play our part in God’s global mission, especially as it relates to the red zones.
To learn more, check out of few of my past blog posts focused on both the need and some solutions: Continue Reading…
The beginning of this year started off with a bang and momentum built up steadily until we took a few strong blows which we are still recovering from.
I will take this post to help you understand the events which led up to our recent car accident and then try to breakout what has happened since then.
I appreciate all of our partners, especially our sending church-Freedom House, all who have prayed for us and supported our Thailand missions work throughout this time. We are stronger because of you.
Here is a break out of all of the incredible things that happened just prior to the accident. Continue Reading…
(This is a format that is easy to use in any home meeting, both English and Thai. The DNA of a healthy multiplication group is embedded in through the strategic use of questions. We hope that you will begin to use it in your own settings as your explore the riches of Scripture together and obey the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20)
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 Continue Reading…
The National Christian leadership of Thailand has promoted a slogan that represents their vision for 2015.
It is known all over Thailand in every local church. It says,
“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 every day local 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. Continue Reading…
There was a very important recent study done here in Thailand on factors related to conversion and church growth among the Thai people.
A high level study of this type had not been done since 1982 which was the first time it had ever been done.
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.”
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. Continue Reading…
Guest Post from Seth Barnes. (Great hard earned insights from a modern missions pioneer)
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. Continue Reading…
T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution: An Overview by John Lambert
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?
The Gospel is always the same, never changing. But the way you share it varies from place to place. Continue Reading…
T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution: An Overview by John Lambert
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 4th 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.) Continue Reading…
T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution: An Overview by John Lambert
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:
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 4th 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) Continue Reading…
T4T A Discipleship ReRevolution An Overview by John Lambert
This chapter starts with some impressive stats. Since its inception in 2001, the CPM initiated by Ying Kai has yielded a conservative number of:
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:
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. Continue Reading…
T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution: An Overview by John Lambert
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.
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. Continue Reading…
In this video I picked up from the site Missionary Confidential, John Doerr speaks students at Stanford University about how entrepreneurs are like missionaries.
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
Thankful that one of my local ministry partners (who has the strength of Individualization) convinced us all to take the Strength Finders 2.0 assessment.
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.
Fresh from time spent on a spiritual pilgrimage and ministry here in Asia, author and speaker Francis Chan has moved to San Francisco in order to bring the Gospel to the people of the “Tenderloin” district working in conjunction with a ministry called San Francisco City Impact.
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. Continue Reading…
People sometimes ask me how I view my missions work and what I do.
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. Continue Reading…
Our friends and coworkers in the Gospel, Dustan and Darlene Stanley, have recently arrived back to us here in Thailand after a trip back to the US.
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! Continue Reading…
-You don’t have to be a “minister” or “missionary” to be called into God’s service. In fact, I believe you are called to use your God given “life mix” to make an eternal impact right now, right where you are. Pastor and author Tim Keller writes,
“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 is the normal, existential/priestly way to discern call.
What people needs do I vibrate to?
Priesthood of all believers, secular versus sacred
Ability is the normal, rational/prophetic way to discern call.
What am I good at doing? Continue Reading…
According to UN calculations today, October 31st, 2011, is the “official day” when 7 billionth person will have been born on planet Earth.
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. Continue Reading…
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Flooding in Thailand- Fast FactsFrancis Chan Planting Churches
Missions Training: 5 E’s
Human Trafficking, Poverty, & Sex5 Mistakes In Sending Missionaries
Thailand’s Meth Epidemic
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Loi Krathong &The Water Goddess
Thai Culture 101
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Why Western Missionaries?How To Reach Thailand With The Gospel
The Craziness of Samsara
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Thai Culture & AffirmationMost Of Thailand is Not Truly BuddhistT4T Training For Trainers: 1-4Week I: Humility and Language LearningMinistry & Playing To Your StrengthsCreeds: The AnasthasianTaking a BreakT4T Training For Trainers: 5-8T4T Training For Trainers: BackgroundChurch Planting & 7 BillionT4T Training For Trainers: 13-16Dr. Michael Brown’s “Line of Fire” Radio on 5 Nights A WeekPraying For MissionariesThe Front Page Stories of Heaven
The Presence of GodAccess to the Gospel
Thai Values
Mr. Lek
Thai Elephants and Entitlement
Eat Meat and Suffer Karma?The Most Important Skill in MinistryJust In From OrlandoDiary: Car Accident UpdateComing HomeThe Reality Of…Being a Shipbreaker in BangladeshThe Summer of Love 40 Years Later
Christ to the Buddhist MindDiscovery Bible Study in ThaiForget Me NotT4T Training For Trainers: 9-12
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