You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men,who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
2 Timothy 2:1-4
The other day I had a lightbulb moment. I get one every few years !
Somebody asked me if Covid had restricted our plans to get going with / supporting church planting ?
It took me nearly half a millisecond to realise 2 things...
1) They are not our plans but Christ's - we are simply playing catchup with what he is doing, and has already outlined as the general's battle plans in the N.T.
We are foot soldiers following the orders of our commanding officer.
(2 TIM 2:2)
2) The plans have accelerated during Covid not slowed down.
Observations:
- Growth is obvious: God is at work, churches are full, more are coming to Christ including many young people, Covid has led more to seek the truth, answers for critical situations and online communication about CHRIST in their own language. We need new churches.
- People are Hungry: Many are asking deep questions, the land is fertile, the time is opportune, harvest is ripe yet the workers are few. Christ is the only answer, the local church is the means God has chosen to use to reach the globe.
- Christ has been moving amongst His churches by His Spirit and drawn people together. Partners in rural areas have come to a common unity to make church planting their priority to the glory of Christ. Networks have grown signficantly, not diminished.
- The details are clearer: Since we started praying more intentionally about this significant issue of church planting (just around a year ago), men have come forward with families prepared to serve, praying hard about being ready, available and trained to get going. Geogrpahical areas of focus (to plant in or concentrate on) are increasingly more obvious (sometimes exactly becuase of the spotlight covid has shone). Resources have been given gloriously one day at a time to progress the pressing matter. This has only strengthened our resolve.
- GLORY TO GOD. SLAVA BOR !
Covid has distilled what we are trying to achieve: Our goal is not to grow ministries, infrastructure and budgets. Our goal is see the kingdom of Christ grow, wherever he sends us. As we follow obediently - this happens and he takes care of all the details. It is an honour to steward what he gives us for this purpose.
"we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done."
Psalm 78:4
To aid this God has beautifully drawn together a network of leaders in a number of locations, and we are all working to the same purpose. There is increased need now for us to step up our efforts and support of those who are being drawn together for the next push to advance.
The areas of support are:
1) Church planter training and development of evangelists / pastors in mission strategy and purpose.
2) General ongoing support of gospel workers in critical early stages (pastoral, financial, doctrine, apologetics, cultural connection, best practice thinking, networking support).
3) General training and encourgaement of the church families and congregations, (connecting with culture, answering objections and heresy, sharing the faith.)
- DEVELOPING A TRAINING PROGRAM: Over the next few weeks the network will be starting earnestlty the hard work of preparing a syllabus and program of training and devlopment. Would you please be kind enough to pray for us, that in these things we will follow the direction of the Holy Spirit, and know His help ?
- DEVELOPING RESOURCES: We have a small network of specialists, and servants. We are going to try to bring together a number of home-grown resources to facilitate the next season.
- Why home grown?
- 1) We need it to be as cheap as possible to put as much resource into the coalface / planting as we can.
- 2) We need it to be as relevant as possible, for a new generation of workers in different contexts.
- 3) We need it to be as flexible as possible, for training online, in person, small conferences, leaders and congregations, in multiple languages and cultures.
How could you help?
- I cannot overstate how grateful we are for your strategic partnership praying through these things.
- Many people are seeking Jesus, the time is ripe for important questions and answers. We are trying to provide as much resource towards this as possible. A copy of "ultimate questions" (in it's many languages) is around £1:50 each.
- Maybe you would be kind enough to sponsor a gift to a church planter or evangelist? It costs relatively little but could be life changeing / eternity changeing for somone.
- We are doing our best to make most of our materials available as ebook, but other existing resources / textbooks are more expensive. Maybe you would consider a gift (£20) towards building a library for a new gospel worker.
- As trainers we pay our own way and do not recieve gifts for our work, so that we can channel more resources to the coalface. Conferences and travelling do cost
money. Maybe you would like to help the indigenous church in this, (pay not for us but those we serve to travel / attend) ? We could then bear all the burden of training and free up local churches to spend more on church planting. - We are working closely with the Ukraine Center for Apologetics, which is a gift funded ministry. Maybe you would like to help at this time of covid, when resources are so challenged. This would also help us in costs of translation (and time of those involved), and support the work of helping the national church to have this excellent and vital resource.
- If you are not in a position to give, of course we completely understand entirely. This time is tough for many. Please still partner with us in prayer, and don't underestimate how immeasurably valuable that would be.
These are exciting days. A friend said to me this week... "Our churches are only full, people are coming to Christ on a daily basis. We pray this for the churches in the UK". It is often the case that times of exceptional church growth come with persecution, sufferring and significant steps of faith. We are confident that God is bigger than covid, and bigger than all our little steps of faith in His plan.
"He that is in us... is greater !"
Thank you so much for all your encouragement, partnership and support.
FOR HIS GLORY, BY HIS HELP.
BLOGSKI on behalf of the network.
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