The Bottom Line
If the Big Picture for WME is our goal to multiply churches in unreached areas as a means of helping to bring closure to the great commission, then what is the Bottom Line or the fundamental principle of what we are doing? Another way to ask this question is what is the DNA of WME?
In pursuing the answer to this let me note that in life, when a baby is born and the proud parents and family are standing at the window looking in the nursery, no one ever says, "What a beautiful lump of DNA that is!" No, rather they say, "What a cute baby....looks just like grandpa." or some such thing. We see the whole baby. Most humans don't have the training or understanding to talk in depth about the individual DNA or genetic make up of the baby in scientific terms. But they can see wholeness and beauty and distinguishing characteristics.
When God first called me to missions involvement in September 1983, I knew absolutely nothing about missiology. All I knew was that for the first time and in 1 hour's time, God had put a burning desire in my heart to bring the gospel to the whole world. In some sense the DNA was there, but I could not unpack or understand it. As the years passed and I worked in local church ministry and christian education and read and studied, it grew and developed. And when WME was started to help 1 missionary who was ministering in Honduras in 1988, we were focused on 1 family in 1 country, but the whole world and closure on the great commission was in the heart of it, even though we could not express it. That's why we named the organization World Missions and Evangelism (and not Honduras children's ministries). That in spite of the fact that the primary motivation at the time (1988) was a specific child evangelism ministry focused on Honduras. A thing's DNA is not necessarily evident when it is first born, but is understood as the life grows and as it is analyzed (and educated) in terms of purpose.
The DNA continued to be revealed as we decided to focus on planting new churches (in 1994) and as we launched into church planter training (in 2000) and when we first read David Garrison's small booklet "Church Planting Movements" (2000). Hyper-revelation of DNA occurred in taking Perspectives (2005) and being introduced to key leaders in cpm in Asia and Africa (David Watson, Jerry Trousdale, and the leadership of Cityteam and New Generations...2006). Through it all we have felt that we have never really changed directions....we have simply been growing into what God has called us to be from the beginning. I remember arriving home from West Africa in September 2006 having visited a new church planting movement and telling my wife, "Patty, I have found what I have been looking for, for 23 years!"
Now, with the launch of the Honduras church planting movement project (2007-present) we are bringing forth after our own kind at last. Having identified enough of our DNA as an organization to define it, we are now intentionally trying to see it multiply.
So what is the bottom line, the DNA of WME? It could be expressed in various ways. We could call it the 21 critical elements of church planting movements. We could boil it down in a sense to "Obedience based Discipleship". We could define that as the fundamental principle that the Kingdom of God expands toward fulfilment of the Great Commission as disciples are made and taught to obey the Word of God in their own lives and continue on to themselves make new disciples and gather in multiplying communities of believers. Now that I am writing this, I find it difficult to put into words. It's kind of like trying to get inspiration from a picture of a strand of DNA and individual genes and imagining what kind of creature you are looking at. As difficult as it is, let me try once more:
The Bottom Line for WME is to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, by obeying His command to make disciples of all the peoples of the world. Our commitment toward this goal is to practice and model and foster obedience to the Word of God in our own lives and to intentionally make disciples who will do the same with a goal of multiplying disciples and churches among unreached peoples and communities worldwide. That is what WME is, that is WME's DNA. Toward this goal, we will be molded by the Word of God. Our intent is not to pursue a "model" of ministry, but to "obey" the Word and adjust our model or models whenever necessary to do so.
May 2010 be a year where we grow more and more in obedience to God's Word and where we bear more and more fruit for His kingdom in terms of disciples made, churches planted, communities transformed.
In pursuing the answer to this let me note that in life, when a baby is born and the proud parents and family are standing at the window looking in the nursery, no one ever says, "What a beautiful lump of DNA that is!" No, rather they say, "What a cute baby....looks just like grandpa." or some such thing. We see the whole baby. Most humans don't have the training or understanding to talk in depth about the individual DNA or genetic make up of the baby in scientific terms. But they can see wholeness and beauty and distinguishing characteristics.
When God first called me to missions involvement in September 1983, I knew absolutely nothing about missiology. All I knew was that for the first time and in 1 hour's time, God had put a burning desire in my heart to bring the gospel to the whole world. In some sense the DNA was there, but I could not unpack or understand it. As the years passed and I worked in local church ministry and christian education and read and studied, it grew and developed. And when WME was started to help 1 missionary who was ministering in Honduras in 1988, we were focused on 1 family in 1 country, but the whole world and closure on the great commission was in the heart of it, even though we could not express it. That's why we named the organization World Missions and Evangelism (and not Honduras children's ministries). That in spite of the fact that the primary motivation at the time (1988) was a specific child evangelism ministry focused on Honduras. A thing's DNA is not necessarily evident when it is first born, but is understood as the life grows and as it is analyzed (and educated) in terms of purpose.
The DNA continued to be revealed as we decided to focus on planting new churches (in 1994) and as we launched into church planter training (in 2000) and when we first read David Garrison's small booklet "Church Planting Movements" (2000). Hyper-revelation of DNA occurred in taking Perspectives (2005) and being introduced to key leaders in cpm in Asia and Africa (David Watson, Jerry Trousdale, and the leadership of Cityteam and New Generations...2006). Through it all we have felt that we have never really changed directions....we have simply been growing into what God has called us to be from the beginning. I remember arriving home from West Africa in September 2006 having visited a new church planting movement and telling my wife, "Patty, I have found what I have been looking for, for 23 years!"
Now, with the launch of the Honduras church planting movement project (2007-present) we are bringing forth after our own kind at last. Having identified enough of our DNA as an organization to define it, we are now intentionally trying to see it multiply.
So what is the bottom line, the DNA of WME? It could be expressed in various ways. We could call it the 21 critical elements of church planting movements. We could boil it down in a sense to "Obedience based Discipleship". We could define that as the fundamental principle that the Kingdom of God expands toward fulfilment of the Great Commission as disciples are made and taught to obey the Word of God in their own lives and continue on to themselves make new disciples and gather in multiplying communities of believers. Now that I am writing this, I find it difficult to put into words. It's kind of like trying to get inspiration from a picture of a strand of DNA and individual genes and imagining what kind of creature you are looking at. As difficult as it is, let me try once more:
The Bottom Line for WME is to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, by obeying His command to make disciples of all the peoples of the world. Our commitment toward this goal is to practice and model and foster obedience to the Word of God in our own lives and to intentionally make disciples who will do the same with a goal of multiplying disciples and churches among unreached peoples and communities worldwide. That is what WME is, that is WME's DNA. Toward this goal, we will be molded by the Word of God. Our intent is not to pursue a "model" of ministry, but to "obey" the Word and adjust our model or models whenever necessary to do so.
May 2010 be a year where we grow more and more in obedience to God's Word and where we bear more and more fruit for His kingdom in terms of disciples made, churches planted, communities transformed.
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