Weekly Update: October 12th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday 10/12/2012

Hello everyone,

Sorry that it has taken so long to bring back the weekly updates!

I do realize that I’ve skipped the whole month of September and the first week of October. Hopefully, I’ll be able to send these updates every week again.

The last month in South Africa, partnering with the School Of Apostolic Pioneering, went by really fast! As all of the student’s projects came to end we all had a lot of grading work to do and my wife did a lot of coaching with the students too.

As the school came to an end our son was able to grow in popularity even more. Several new schools arrived and with them lots of new students who quickly grew fond of our little youngster.

All said and done, we had 17 graduating students, 3 participating students, and 10 staff who all worked together start the first SOAP on the African continent. We are looking forward to see the new things that our students will pioneer in the coming years!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

Other Updates:

– We have some news about my wife’s visa process! As of last week, our lawyer forwarded our application to the U.S.C.I.S. who will then forward it on to the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam. After they receive it they will make an appointment with us for an interview.

Before the interview we will have to do a few things, like gather more relationship evidence and visit a doctor, but we are finished with most things.

The greatest prayer concerns are, one, everything will go smoothly, and, two, everything will proceed in God’s timing. The interview could be anywhere from 2 to 6 months from now. If we cannot have the interview within the very early part of that time frame, I will need to spend some time outside of the Netherlands again. We will be praying for whatever God has for us!

Please be praying for us too!

Scripture:

Over the last couple days I’ve been reading through the book of Isaiah.

There are a good number of cool things to be said of Isaiah’s prophecies and visions, but a lot of them can seem gloomy to say the least. I guess it makes it very easy to see what is terrible and what is good – the terrible is always attributed to sin, the good is always attributed to turning to God and what good He promises to do in the nations.

I think that chapter 19 of Isaiah is a good example of this; through the beginning of the chapter you see a lot of gloom for the nation of Egypt, but in the end you see that God has great hopes for the nation as well. In almost every case that I can remember this is the way the prophetic writings in the Bible work themselves out. Before I learned to start seeing the prophecies this way they were a lot harder to understand.

The other thing that made a difference was to not look at them verse by verse, but rather look at them in the context of the whole book.

The book of Hosea was the first book I tried this with. You can try it too; simply ask God to show you what He means by the book and then read the whole thing right there.

It helped me understand God a lot when I did it!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time and opportunity to partner with the SOAP in South Africa!

– Praise God for the growth that we were able to see the growth in ourselves and in our students during the school!

– Please continue praying for my wife’s visa application!

– Please pray that our family would be able to use our time wisely in the Netherlands and wherever else God brings us during this time!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

TAK Article: Servant Leadership

TAK Article: Servant Leadership

Over the past year God has been teaching me a lot about being a servant. He has been doing this through the books I read, the relationships I am committed to, and especially when I take the time to listen and hear His voice.

Perhaps I can pass something of that along!

Servant Leadership

The first time I heard of “servant leadership” was at a team training week preparing our team of young people to lead youth groups on missions trips over the course of the summer. We were mostly familiar with each other and our two-weeks of training were broken up with teachings in the morning, workshops where we created a program for the Summer in the afternoon, followed by times to hang out and have fun in the evenings. That morning our base leader came to teach us about values, servant leadership, and conflict resolution.

He opened up his Bible and told us to turn to John 13: 3-10.

‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.’ – NIV

My take away from that morning was that if I wanted to lead people then I would need to serve them too. However, it took me several more years (plus my future wife and our son) to learn the greater part of what Jesus was talking about.

Servant Leadership in Practice

What I missed that summer morning was the very nature of leadership that God desires for us. Mark 9:35 says this, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

At that point in time, and for several years after that, I operated out of the idea that those who were the leaders had the authority to tell others what to do. As a follower, it was my job to do exactly what my leader told me to do and I wasn’t responsible for anything more than that.

This was the point of view that I took when I listened to people talk about leadership, read stories from the Bible about leadership, and did my best to practice leadership. In many ways, this was my paradigm – the way I filtered the world around me. I could recite a lot of stories from the Bible where God and others leaders used this model, but even  when that was not the case I would have still perceived it to be true because this was the paradigm that I understood leadership from.

During my time in the Netherlands, in the spring of 2012, I started reading You see bones, I see an army, by Floyd McClung.

In that book Floyd McClung talked about leadership in a way that I had never heard before, nor would I have understood prior. It was this, to serve is to lead. Leadership does not come through training, degrees, titles, positions or power over others – it comes by being a servant to the people around you and building influence through that.

He used the same verses of the Bible that I had always read and heard, but now they made a lot more sense!

Shortly thereafter, as I remember it, I spent some time asking God about this. Is this why Jesus has influence in the world today? Is this what His kingdom is built upon?

In my heart I felt a resounding yes, the only reason that Jesus, God with us, has influence in the lives of people today is because He came to us as a servant. He didn’t use His position in heaven to force things to happen in the earth, but He gave Himself to us – He served us.

Applying Servant Leadership

Just recently I also read The Servant, by James C. Hunter.

I found that this book brought a lot of the challenges of servant leadership together and then practically worked them out.

The book follows the story of an educated businessman and several others as they learn about what it means to be a leader. In the beginning of the book almost everyone thinks that it is their job is to serve the people above them and control the people below them, but then as the book progresses they find that their ultimate goal is to serve the people that they are leading.

I highly recommend the book to anybody!

One of the principles shared in this book was that in order to lead people you needed to choose to love them through meeting their needs – not to feel warmly about them, but to actually act in their best interest. The book goes on to say that character traits we find most valuable in a leader are what you would call this sort of action oriented love.

The attributes listed were taken from 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7.

‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.’ – NIV

As stated in the book, love is: patient, kind, humble, respectful, selfless, forgiving, honest, and committed. This sort of love requires action!

Committing to Lead as a Servant

As a I write this my wife and are still in our first year and a half of marriage, we already have an eight-month old son, and we haven’t had a really solid place to live during any of that time. God has been unbelievably faithful during this time, but this has also been the time when He’s chosen to hammer out my commitment to lead like Him the most.

Towards my wife… I’ve always known that the Bible says to love her and even to lead her (which could seem like a rather intimidating task in itself), but it didn’t make sense before God really started revealing this idea of being a servant. Yes, I should love her like Christ loves the church and control her too? No, that’s not the message, God calls me to love her and lead her – to serve her, to make it possible for her to become even more of the woman God created her to become! Now, that’s something that I can be excited about!

Towards my son… well, in the months right after he was born it was really difficult to serve him with all my heart. A lot of the time my actions were driven by guilt or fear of becoming a bad father to him. Instead of this, God’s call for me is to serve my son – to build a strong relationship with him so that he may know what it is like to have a strong relationship with our Father too!

Towards others… as I am learning it, the most effective way for us to show God’s love to other people is to love them through our actions. Is that really leadership? Yes, it is leadership – if people do not see God’s love for them through you they will not follow you to Jesus.

That, as the realization of it hits my heart, is the greatest challenge of leading as a servant! Are we willing to serve others just like Jesus has served us?

The Challenge of Servant Leadership

Jesus shared a lot of stories about being a servant to those around us. He certainly went to the point of death for us and even further!

That is the last point that I will share – it is not spoken by Jesus when He was walking the earth, but after He rose from the dead and took His seat next to His Father. This is what others came to understand and applied to their lives. Perhaps you would consider it in your life too?

Philippians 2: 1-11.

‘Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ – NKJV

May Christ be with you!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: August 22nd, 2012

Weekly Update: Monday, 8/20/12

Hello everyone,

Wow, the time has really been flying by!

Since our last update we’ve had four different speakers come and teach on the School Of Apostolic Pioneering. By now we’ve covered principles of communication, teamwork, networking, spiritual warfare, and fundraising.

Last week has being taught by Tim Svoboda, of YWAM San Francisco, on the importance of reaching cities. He also showed us ways of researching our cities in order to find the different groups of people who we want to reach out to. For example, in San Francisco there are over 40,000 Afghani people, around 4,000 Vietnamese, and many others beside these!

The next speaker at the SOAP school will be Dave Stone, from First Rate. He will be teaching on Business As Mission.

As for news about our family, our son is growing really, really fast! Over the past two weeks he has figured out how to crawl, sit on his own, pick things up with his fingers, how to climb up sturdy things so that he can stand, and he’s just starting to shuffle along the side of our bed!

Oh, he is starting to stop when we tell him to stop too!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

Other Updates:

– In Tuindorp, the community next to the YWAM Worcester base, we’ve been able to start coming into a couple more houses. In both of the new houses are people who do not follow Jesus and at times they stop to listen in on what we are talking about.

– A friend of mine has just started working with a Business As Mission that imports goods made by women brought out of prostitution in India and other countries. You can find out more at Better Way Imports or by reading her blog post at Epic Granola.

Scripture:

Since coming to YWAM Worcester to work with the SOAP I can confidently say that my love for God has grown. In many ways my love for God has faltered when I couldn’t understand what He was doing while we were in the Netherlands, but looking back I do see His love.

What was a shadow of love several months ago is now made beautiful in the light of His goodness and grace towards us.

Psalm 145: 8-9

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

While there are a lot of good memories from our time in the Netherlands, I can’t really shake the feeling that while I was there I considered it only a second best from God. Wouldn’t it have been better if God simply answered all of our prayers as we prayed them?

It affected my heart towards God and in turn it affected how much I was willing to be alive around other people and even by myself. I regret that very much, though, God still did many miracles for us during that time. Many of those miracles were spent on keeping us together as a family!

God has certainly been with us over the past months!

Thank you for the years of miracles that you have given us, Lord! May we still praise You more and receive even more goodness and grace from your hands!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time here in Worcester, it has been very life giving to our family!

– Pray that my wife’s visa process will continue moving smoothly and that we would receive everything that God has for us during this process!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: July 26th, 2012

Weekly Update: Tuesday, 7/26/12

Hello everyone,

I pray that your week has been getting to a good start!

We didn’t have a specific speaker at the SOAP last week, so, our school leader and several others filled in the time sharing about StrengthFinders, finding our identity, vocation, and other practical ways of figuring out what we are good at. We also covered topics like SMART goals and making budgets for our ministries and personal lives.

Our family is still learning how to balance all the different responsibilities we have, but we feel like we are getting better at it with every week.

Our son has just figured out that it can be fun to sit too… he’s almost been refusing to learn since he’s started to stand with our help. He hasn’t really taken any first steps yet, which is good since he also can’t crawl in a straight line either. We are enjoying where he is at very much.

This week, we’ve invited the old base director from Worcester to teach on “Principles of Pioneering.” He is doing a very good job.

I’ll share more about that in the next update though!

Thanks for partnering with us!

Other Updates:

– In Tuindorp, the community next to the YWAM Worcester base, we had our first small group meeting last week. We had one family participate. Since we are meeting in their home, we asked if we could help them invite more people to come and they said that would be fine.

We are hoping to see more families at our next meeting this Friday. Please be praying for us and the people we will be fellowshipping with!

Scripture:

The other night, I was challenged by Psalms 100.

The day had already been long and I wasn’t really looking forward to reading more, but as I read this short Psalm I was fairly convicted by it. It talks about making a joyful noise to Him, serving Him with gladness, and singing to Him because He is God and that He never fails us.

It was God who made it possible to come here and this psalm encouraged me to remember that. The Psalm also reminded me how thankful we are have been brought here for this time.

Praise God for what He is doing in South Africa!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our wonderful students!

– Pray that God would help our students imagine the vision that God has given them and develop it to give Him glory, honor, and praise!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: July 16th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 7/16/12

Hello everyone,

I pray that this message finds you well!

Our family is adjusting to life on the Worcester base pretty well! My wife does most of the taking care of Jay Edward, though, today is my morning to take care of him.

Earlier this morning the entire base had an hour and a half of worship to start off the week. It was a very good time! When I arrived all the chairs were stacked up and there was a really big open area for everyone to meet up in. The first song was sung in Swahili and everyone was challenged to use the space to dance!

I will say, I usually don’t do that sort of thing… but I have been thinking that it would happen… and so I danced with everyone too.

It was a lot of fun and God spoke to everyone in a really powerful way!

For me, it was a chance to worship and pray in a way that I have never had the courage to do. During the time God gave me a lot of pictures about what our future may look like and continued to encourage me to pursue the future He has for us. It is really encouraging to take a new step toward God and receive such a powerful response!

Thanks for partnering with us!

Other Updates:

– The SOAP School here in Worcester, South Africa, has a couple new students! We just accepted a couple late comers last night after we prayed over their applications. That brings our total up to eighteen students! The nations represented through the students in this school are South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Angola, Brazil, and the U.S.

– Last week we had our base leader from Idaho speak on “Faith & Pioneering”. He challenged all the students to pray about and imagine the dreams that God has put on their hearts.

– Quote of the Week: “The big vision that God has for us is mixed up in the circumstances He has brought us through and the passions that He has placed inside us.”

Scripture:

The psalm I read this morning was Psalm 96.

God used the psalm to remind me of who He is and what He is doing in the world. I realize this even more as I try to write about it!

In this psalm God is calling us to worship Him and remember what He has brought us through. Each day God saves us and holds us up. He doesn’t want to stop there, though, God wants every person from nation on earth to experience His love.

“Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”
– NIV

It is safe to say that there are places on the earth where God is opposed from reaching this goal. It is also safe to say that in each of our hearts we oppose God from reaching this goal too, both in the nations and in our own hearts. The more we give our hearts to Him the more we will see this goal accomplished.

This psalm calls us worship God, declare who He is to every person of every nation! Let’s do this together with God!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our wonderful students!

– Pray that God would help our students imagine the vision that God has given them and develop it to give Him glory, honor, and praise!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: July 8th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 7/8/12 

Hello everyone,

I pray that your week has been good!

Our travels have gone very well and we are now in Worcester, South Africa.

Worcester is a very beautiful place! From our rooms window we can see some high hills in the distance, but outside you can see more of the red-black mountains that stand between us and Cape Town. Most of the people here speak Afrikaans, though, here at the base, English is used the most. There are also a lot of people who speak Portuguese and Korean on the base too.

Most of our time has been spent taking care of our son and sitting in on meetings. We’ve discussed the school’s curriculum (what the written curriculum looks like and how we model the curriculum as staff), history and values of the SOAP, and praying through how we should practice evangelism in the community of Worcester.

The students of this School Of Apostolic Pioneering are coming from many different places; some of our students are coming from South Africa, Brazil, the United States, and several other African nations, though, I don’t know them all yet. We have eighteen possible students in total.

Please, keep these students and us in your prayers!

We are very excited to be here and we look forward to all things God has in mind to do during our next three months in South Africa!

Other Updates:

– Traveling with our son went really good! We spent around 36 hours traveling and he really made the best of it. There were very few people who could resist his cuteness as he made grumpy people and airport guards all the way from Germany to South Africa smile!

Scripture:

“Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.” – KJV

This verse comes from Psalm 82. Like last week, the psalmist is speaking about the injustice in the world and he is calling on God to do something about it. This time it is less personal, but the psalmist is still looking to God for the answers.

At the school, here in South Africa, we are starting to notice the injustices that the town and communities around us are known for. There are drug addictions and robbery, both of these are connected to each other. The place is known for its crime. These are found among people who Jesus came to see have life.

Please be praying with as we share Jesus’ light with the people in these communities.

He is the answer to all injustice.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our safe travels to South Africa!

– Pray that God would help us stay focused and use our time well at the SOAP!

– Pray for our family’s health!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June 29th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 6/29/12

Hello everyone,

I pray this update finds you all well!

In less than one week from today our family will be in South Africa! We leave for the airport this Sunday evening. Monday will be a long day of traveling for us; two airplanes and then a long drive to Worcester!

Getting back into the lifestyle of living at a YWAM base will be an interesting change for us. In many ways The Netherlands has become a bit homey for me and for my wife it’s become her home again. We have very good friends and family here and I am sure their company will be missed as we travel to a new place to live.

Still, we will be back for a bit after the School Of Apostolic Pioneering is over in South Africa. We will need to be here to finish up my wife’s visa before traveling back to the US.

In South Africa we will be joining five others to staff the School Of Apostolic Pioneering; in that group there are two other couples with youngsters too. For all of us it will be the time staffing the school with our own children! We will see how things get divided up when we get there, but I’m sure that it will be a good chance for all of us to learn how to be leaders and parents at the same time!

I’m not sure how getting internet looks like down there yet, but I’ll continue to try to get the weekly updates sent out as weekly as possible!

Thanks for your attention!

Other Updates:

– My wife’s visa process is still moving along; we’re working with our lawyer right now to get copies and paperwork together for the second step that should be finished before we get back to the Netherlands.

– Both my wife and I are pretty tired and a little sick, well, my wife is certainly a bit more sick than I am right now. Finishing unfinished projects have been sapping most of our energy. Please pray for our health as we travel to South Africa!

Scripture:

This morning the Psalm I read was Psalm 70.

At first glance, I suppose a person could argue that this is just another one of those psalms that is asking God for revenge. There are a number of psalms that could sound like that, but I don’t think that’s what we’re reading about.

In the life of King David, who wrote this psalm, we see story after story of injustices taking place; at times people are trying to kill him unjustly, other times he sees injustice in others, and other times he is the one at the center of the injustice. When he writes about others doing injustice he is severe, when he writes about the injustices done by his own hands he begs God for forgiveness.

What is the take away for us?

We live in a world full of injustices just like King David. Today, in Syria, people are going to be killed because they’ve defied a government who hasn’t spared its hand in committing injustices against men, women, and children. Wherever the life in people, which God has created in them, is not respected injustices will follow. What should we do? What does David do?

David, when injustice was before him, turned to God.

We could imagine trying to right all the wrongs in the world, but this is an impossible task for us; that, in fact, was one of the things God asks Job in Job 40:6-14.

In our day, which isn’t much different from David’s day, we need to turn to God and ask Him what to do. We are poor and in desperate need of God to change our hearts to oppose injustice. Only when the hearts of people will change will injustice cease.

God has sent Jesus Christ into the world to do this.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in The Netherlands!

– Pray that God would help us remember the lessons that He has taught us while being here!

– Pray for our health!

– Pray that everything will go well in our travels, we fly out of Germany on the 2nd of July and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, later that night.

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June 15th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 6/15/12

Hello everyone,

The past couple weeks have been very special for our family!

The Sunday before last, my wife’s brother had his public profession of faith at our home church here in the Netherlands. The profession of faith service is a response to the family baptism service that I’ve written about earlier. The baptism service gives honor to God for taking the first steps toward the child, the profession of faith service gives honor to God for continuing that relationship and our response back to God.

It was a very beautiful service and I am excited to see my brother-in-law and the other young people choose to show their love for God.

The other big thing that has happened over the last week is that God has provided us with all the money that we needed to buy our plane tickets! We certainly weren’t expecting it, but when my wife called her insurance company to see if we would need to pay anything extra this year, they told us that we would be receiving money back for the months we were in the Netherlands!

So, between that and the rest of the support we will receive over the following months, we should have our costs for South Africa covered!

Even though God has been very faithful to us in the area of finances, this last time of waiting has been really nerve-racking for us. I remember talking to my wife about it and feeling like if God would just provide for us then we could have rest. However, that hasn’t been what God has been teaching us. He’s used this experience to teach us, again, that He wants us to rest in who He is – not in how we want or expect Him to act.

God desires to do us good and to help us grow. Sometimes, these two things can seem to contradict each other, but we can trust that God has His best for us at heart.

We are both very thankful that God has taught us this again!

Other Updates:

– Just the other day I wrote an article about the heart of being an apostolic pioneer. I realize, though, that this doesn’t really explain what the School Of Apostolic Pioneering looks like. If you would like to know what the school looks like in detail I recommend checking out YWAM Worcester’s page describing it.

The page is very informative and it has a video on it too. You can check both of these out by clicking the link here, SOAP – YWAM Worcester.

Scripture:

I think the Psalm that has hit me the most this week has been Psalm 127.

I’ve already written about it some in the article I wrote just the other day, but I think I want to focus on the second verse in the psalm. It says this:

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”

During the last couple weeks I cannot say that I have found myself that joyful, or restful for that matter. I have been quite frustrated at times when the topic of support would come up or how we would pay for our tickets to South Africa. This is quite unlike the other times I’ve waited on God for the money that I would need to do something.

I think that this verse sheds some light on how I’ve felt.

I’ve thought about what I need too much and who I know God to be too little. He has been very good to me and my family. Never have we been in a need that He hasn’t provided for. I’ve spent too much time thinking and worrying.

In my heart I know that God desires the best for us. He desires to be the one whom we can rest in. He desires to be the one we know will provide for us.

Somehow, I forgot this.

However, learning it again makes me glad and I praise God for it!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God that my wife and I have our tickets for South Africa!

– Pray that God will help us learn even more about Him and His provision for us!

– Pray that everything will go well in our travels, we fly out of Germany on the 2nd of July and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, later that night.

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

TAK Article: Apostolic Pioneering

Good news!

Just yesterday my wife and I were able to buy our plane tickets to South Africa! Our purpose in going to South Africa will be to staff the School Of Apostolic Pioneering.

Now the school’s name is a bit of a mouthful, so, we usually shorten it to SOAP.

I’ve wanted to write something like this for a while now, but yesterday, while reading Psalm 127, it felt like God told me to write it out. So, I’ll attempt to do that; I want to share with you what it means to be apostolic and what it means to pioneer, also, I want to use this Psalm to help explain that.

I hope that this explains what my wife and I will be a part of in South Africa this summer!

Psalm 127

King James Version (KJV)

1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

What is an Apostle?

What does being Apostolic look like?

As far as I can tell, an apostle is simply someone who has been sent with a message and who has been given the authority to deliver that message. Being apostolic is living the life you have been given with  that definition in mind.

How often do we choose to live our lives like this?

For some of us this can seem like a really easy thing to identify in others. I have a good number of friends who work in countries that are unreached. Are these people apostles? Yes, I think they are; they have been sent with gospel and Jesus gives them the authority to share that gospel with others. Do we all have to go to the unreached to be apostolic? No, I don’t think so.

Anyone who chooses to live their life in a way that carries the gospel of Jesus to people and places where His gospel is not chooses to live in an apostolic way.

What does this Psalm have to do with that?

The first two verses talk about this: God is the one who empowers us, don’t fret and worry about how things will go – God will take care of it.

When we try to do things without God’s strength in us we are being insecure and only want to prove ourselves. We aren’t willing to say that we are weak and He is strong. When we rely on God for our strength then we are able to be apostolic. Then, we can carry the gospel to people who do not yet have the gospel in their lives.

That is the first thing God has been sharing with me in this Psalm.

What is a Pioneer?

What does pioneering look like?

To be a pioneer is not that different from being an apostle; however, you can be a pioneer of anything.

When I was about fifteen years old I learned a lot about paintball and started a small paintball team with my brothers and cousins. Before we came together there wasn’t any paintball team, after we came together there was a paintball team where there wasn’t one.

That is how simple it can be to be a pioneer.

Now, being a pioneer of things that last is a whole other matter!

Living a life that is apostolic calls us to trust in God and reach out to those who do not know who God can be in their lives. This is going to result in people coming closer to God. Now what? Pioneering implies that we do something with this that is worthwhile and lasts.

What is to be pioneered?

Well, I think that depends on what God tells you to do, though, ultimately, the church is what is being pioneered.

I’m not speaking of a specific denomination or wing of theology, I am speaking of the church that makes up Jesus’ body – the one that He is the head of. Some people who have taken the SOAP school have taken this pioneering up in Phoenix, Arizona, others have taken it up in red light districts in Asia. Soon, we are looking forward to see people pioneering things in Africa.

The church, those who follow Jesus and are committed to Him, are commanded by Jesus to love others as we would have others love ourselves. Pioneering is about doing so in places and in ways that it has not been done before.

The last three verses this Psalm reminds me of this too.

We really only live for a short time and then we’re gone, however, our children go on after us. When we focus on being apostolic we will raise up spiritual children. When we pioneer, we are gathering our spiritual children together to do something great for God – to show off His love.

We can only do so much, but God has spiritual children for us that will out do us. We can trust God that He will be with them and do more with them than we could alone.

Apostolic  Pioneering?

Yes, this school is all about Apostolic Pioneering

The message we have been given to give is the gospel of Jesus, He has given us the authority to share it with others. As people respond to this gospel we are pioneering the church in new places and with new ways to share God’s love.

It is very exciting to be a part of the first School Of Apostolic Pioneering in Africa. We have already seen this school be effective in Asia and North America too.

Together, when we live apostolic lives and pioneer things that last, we will see God raise up children who are not ashamed of Jesus and who will “speak with the enemies in the gate.”

Please be praying for this with us!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June, 1st 2012

Weekly Update: Thursday, 6/1/12

Hello everyone,

Yesterday was my wife’s 23^rd birthday!

We all had a good time and there are plenty of snacks left lying around, but I think most of you reading this are bit far away to stop by and help eat them. I made a banana cream pie, my wife and her father bought lots of these chocolate covered whip cream ball things, and we ate a really good dinner.

I found out that it is actually rather simple to make a banana cream pie from scratch.

Half way through the process I realized that I just made my own vanilla pudding and after that I tried to make a meringue top for it. If you’d like to try your hand at it here are the links to the recipes that I used: Banana Cream Pie, Meringue Topping, and Pie Crust.

If you dare, have fun cooking!

Other Updates:

– During the past couple weeks it has been fun to be in the Netherlands. Last Sunday we’ve celebrated Pentecost and ten days before that we celebrated Jesus’ Ascension. They are both national holidays here in the Netherlands.

– While support raising this past week I’ve had the chance to pray with most of the people I’ve called this past week. It has been very encouraging and I look forward to keeping everyone in our prayers!

– Concerning the SOAP in South Africa: we still need to raise $2,350 dollars for our plane tickets as soon as possible, we should be able to cover the costs of staffing the school ($1000 dollars) with our current monthly support, and we still need to raise $400 in case of extra expenses.

If you wish to support us in this, you can contact our Home Front Committee for more instructions at: “hfc@zaaier.com”.

 

Scripture:

Reading Psalm 46 has been really important for me this week.

It’s been pretty easy for me to start feeling down over the past couple of days. I start thinking about things more than I experience them and before long I can’t concentrate anymore or have any reason to feel good. The only answer that I have found during times like these has been to turn to Jesus and ask Him to help me.

Yesterday was like that, it was also the day that I read Psalm 46.

In there it says to “be still and know that I am God” and right after that “I will be worshipped in all the earth.”

Far too often I get focused on trying to do the right things and I forget to be still. I remember that my first responsibility is to love God and love the others around me, but I forget to be still and let God prepare me for that. He reminded me of that yesterday. Whenever He calls us to do something, He will be the source of our strength to do that thing. He has called all of us to be the church and tell the nations about Him, but we forget to rely on Him for the strength to do so.

As followers of Christ (and as a follower of Christ) we need to learn how to rely on Jesus for our strength – for everything that we will need to do what He calls us to do.

Yesterday, God helped me learn that again.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– In the next few days we will have a better idea of where we are at in raising money to go to South Africa for the SOAP. Please be praying with us that God will continue showing us the direction He has for us and that He will confirm what He wants to do through us!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom