The conference began today. For the past three years we have been working with a group of pastors and leaders here in Mexico City. The Mexican evangelical church is pushing right on toward maturity, and one of the measures of a mature church is understanding the big picture of God’s mission. Maturity is the realization that it’s not about building a nice little church and getting some people to come. It’s about making disciples of the most biblical and radical kind who naturally and normally reproduce themselves. The resulting church carries the same DNA and simply cannot resist total engagement in God’s mission.
Watching these leaders mature has been most gratifying. Many are making great strides. Several of these pastors have now been on exploratory trips to various places around the world. Several missionaries representing this group are now in places as far away as India, China, North Africa and the Middle East. I said this “group,” but this is a group without membership, without officers, a name or a constitution. We represent several denominations and backgrounds. What we have in common is a growing passion to make disciples of Jesus Christ from every ethnic group on this planet.
One of our KCBT board members, Mike Perry, is teaching leadership in the morning sessions. Mike has been an executive with Hallmark in Kansas City and has just been promoted to be CEO of the Hallmark-owned Crayola company in Pennsylvania. We hate to lose Mike, but I know that we will be seeing more of him. He’s hooked! He’s got the DNA and can’t stop. We are excited for him to have this wonderful opportunity.
In the later sessions I am teaching a ten-element planning model for the development of missionaries. The interaction, questions and discussion has been very solid and insightful. What a privilege to work with these folks!
Before I sign off for the night, I invite you to check out a great post I read earlier today on Bob Robert’s web site. Bob pastors a glocal church in Texas and I love to read his blog every chance I get. He has some great thoughts and insight. When you have heard me use the term glocal, it’s because he has corrupted that part of my vocabulary. Anyway, he wrote today asking the question Why Do We Start Churches? I loved it! Check it out here.
Join me each day as I share what's bouncing around in my head and heart. I wish I had time to sit down with each of you over a good cup of coffee, but at least we can thank God for blogs! Oh! I'll take the coffee, too, whenever I can!
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