(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)

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 Continue Reading…

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

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.”  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. Continue Reading…

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—“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? 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…

When it comes to reasons why Thai people begin to follow Jesus Christ as Lord, I believe there is a common theme that emerges through their testimonies. 

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. Continue Reading…

Missional:  It is a newer word to describe a person or group of people (ie, church) who know that God Himself is own Mission and that he has called them to join Him.

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.  Continue Reading…