World Missions & Evangelism, Inc.

Here is a brief last word for 2009. It is one of praise to God for His faithfulness and blessings to World Missions and Evangelism. I really believe that this has been the most significant year in the history of our organization. WME was founded in 1988 to be a ministry of helps for 1 missionary. After focusing our strategic work on church planting, WME helped train church planters between 2000 and 2008 and through their work, planted 212 churches. WME was introduced to the church planting movement strategy in 2005 and 2006 and decided to launch a cpm project in Honduras. The foundation for this was laid in 2007, and the project launched in 2008. The story of that launch and project can be read in the articles posted on this blog during the last 2 years. That brings us to 2009. Here in a nutshell is a report of where WME is and what has happened this year. 1. WME continues to facilitate missionaries in 20 nations on every continent except Antartica! 2. WME has seen the Hondu

As we enter the month of December, I can honestly say, I don't know how this year passed so fast. Where did the time go? 2009 has been the most productive year in the history of WME. And it has all happened so fast that we barely knew what was happening. A year ago (check the blog from December 2008) we were preparing to have David and Paul Watson come down and do a training for the Honduras team. That training happened and it was crucial for the project. The information and mentoring received from David and Paul were literally mission critical. At the end of the month, Randy and I met again to plan the 2009 initiatives and then Randy returned to Honduras. By March, we realized that by the grace of God, the project was beginning to multiply toward 2nd generation inductive studies. In mid-March there were discovery Bible studies in about 25-30 locations in western Honduras. In early June, a team from Cave Hill Independent Church of God came down, along with myself, Daniel Sl

Here's another praise report. The election in Honduras went off without a hitch. It was a peaceful, open election and it seems to poise Honduras to move away from the brink of crisis on which it has teetered for 5 months. Many of God's people have prayed fervently for this election and we thank the Lord for hearing and answering these prayers. Please continue to pray for Honduras during the transition time until the new administration is inaugurated. And continue to pray for the Honduras church planting movement project. We believe that there are over 300 inductive Bible studies occurring now in both western and eastern Honduras. Agree with us especially for the studies that will soon be finishing the first level of studies, "Discovering God". As these studies come to an end, people will have opportunity to make a quality decision to follow Christ as Savior and Lord, and to obey Him in baptism. Let us pray that hundreds follow Christ in this manner. Randy and I will n

In this post we want to ask our readers to make November 29, 2009 a special time of prayer. On this date the nation of Honduras will be having it's national election. For the last 5 months, the nation of Honduras has been passing through a period of turbulence. On June 28 the President was removed and in the intervening time there has been political conflict, international condemnation and termination of much needed aid, disruptions in travel and infrastructure, and at times, what seemed to be the threat of civil war. Now, 5 months later, the election gives an opportunity for resolution of the crisis and a return to normalcy in this much suffering country. During these 5 months, the work of the Honduras church planting movement project has continued through the blessing of God. 5 months ago, there were inductive Bible studies in 73 locations. Today they are in 288 locations by actual count, and possibly in over 300 locations. Work is going forth in the 5 westernmost departments and

Jesus told us in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) to make disciples. In some blogs last year, I tried to illustrate a discipleship model of completing the Great Commission (How to Win the World In One Generation, Win the World in 1 Generation, and Project 2030). In this post, let's look at a simple proposal that connects the 3 Column Bible study to the larger picture. Imagine with me what would happen if someone became totally committed to the process of: Hearing the Word of God Understanding the Word of God Obeying the Word of God In other words, he would apply the parable of the sower (Mark 4: 1-20), in a literal way in his life. This personal commitment would be the heart of his own relationship with God. He would say, "Lord, I choose to follow you. I don't want to be a disobedient child of God. I am a follower of Jesus, I choose to be your disciple. I know there is a cost to this....you told me to count it. But I am tired of mere religious Christianity. Jesus Ch

I first learned about this wonderful method of Bible study from David Watson. David is a missionary and strategist who has helped begin church planting movements worldwide. Since 1990 he has helped movements that have planted over 100,000 churches. The three column Bible study method is a fundamental part of the process of church planting movements. This method of Bible Study is beneficial to an individual and it is foundational to a small group discovery Bible study which is the foundational unit of church planting. In the “Hear The Word” column you will write out the passage of scripture that you are studying word for word. Someone might ask, why must the passage be written, I can just read it. But if you are doing this for your own study, it is important that you write it. As you write the passage, you have to read it a number of times. So this process is causing you to read it and think about it as you are writing the passage. In your study you will focus on just a few verses...a

In this blog we try to do 2 things. First and foremost, we want to give updates on the progress of the Honduras church planting movement project. Secondly, we want to give to the blog reader insights into the principles of C.P.M. both for information purposes and to hopefully impact the reader's own spiritual journey. I think that in terms of the last mentioned objective, the most helpful thing I have written about is the 3 column Bible study. In order not to repeat myself unnecessarily , let me refer you to 3 previous blog articles from this year. The first was on May 6 and called "The 3 Column Bible Study". In that article I explained the basics of how a 3 column study worked. A week later, in the May 13 article called "3 Column Study on Joshua 1:8", I demonstrated how a 3 column study would look. If this is the first exposure you have to this Bible study method, I encourage you to go back and look at those blogs (also posted as facebook notes, if that is how

Last week on my Facebook page, I used the "7 Realities of Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby and Claude King" as my status updates for each day. "Experiencing God" was a great blessing to me when I took the course several years ago. It was also a textbook for one of my classes in seminary. I thank God for Blackaby and King and the wonderful truths that their book and course unearthed for us. Here is a list of the 7 realities: 1. God is always working around you. 2. God pursues a continuing personal love relationship with you that is real and personal. 3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work. 4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways. 5. God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. 6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing. 7. You com

This blog is to announce the launch of our new website. The new website for World Missions and evangelism is at www.worldmissions.us . This new site is linked to our facebook cause page (where you can donate to the Honduras project online), our youtube videos, and this blog. The website will be our central Internet hub for information about WME. Of course this blog at wme.blogspot.com will continue to be where we download information weekly (if not more frequently) concerning the Honduras project and other church planting movement information. I hope readers will continue to come here every week. Also, let me give this update on Honduras. The studies are continuing to multiply. We believe that inductive Bible studies are occurring in over 200 locations now. In a few weeks, Randy will be traveling back to Honduras to conduct another cpm training conference in the East. In that region (where studies started "accidentally" because some of our Honduran workers were "s

The month of October has been a whirlwind of activity for WME and its CPM project. The American missionary team has returned home (with the exception of Keith Travis who is in south Mexico). The Honduras project is seemingly exploding! I have just returned from Kenya where God is opening doors for future CPM training. Here is a brief report. In Kenya, I was with our WME missionary Larry Hardin. We conducted a 3 day pastors and leaders conference, which is an annual event. The speakers were Larry Hardin, Christy Anderson, Russell Bivin, Don Runkle, Paul Tocco, Donna Tocco, one other brother and myself. It was a great conference with about 80 in attendance in Nyaharuru, Kenya. During my 6 conference sessions, I laid the foundation for CPM understanding. None of these leaders knew anything about church planting movements. During the conference, other speakers emphasized the need for Kenyan leaders to focus on the north of Africa. I encouraged a vision to reach the north with CP

Randy and Linda Travis have just arrived home from Honduras this week. Here is the fantastic report about the progress in the Honduras C. P. M. project. Last March, our initial studies began to see real multiplication for the first time since we launched the project. We had somewhere around 25 locations with inductive Bible studies started at that time. By the end of June, just before the political crisis hit the country, that had multiplied to 73 studies. Our latest assessment, brought back this week by Randy is that we now have 151 locations with inductive Bible studies. 123 of these are in Western Honduras, where our original project focus is. 28 of these are in Eastern Honduras where we have recently begun work. Praise and Glory to God. It is His work and we are very happy to be a part of what He is doing in Honduras. The next 3 months will be very important as the studies progress and the call to full discipleship to Christ is made. But know that those 151 locations for studies re

It has been a few weeks since a new blog article, and that is because we have been busy busy busy. First of all thanks for all the prayers for the traveling that I mentioned last time. Randy and I went to Dallas and had a great time at the conference there. Neil Cole's teaching was a highlight for us and we really are benefiting from his materials. Then I took Randy home to Alabama and came home to Kentucky. I was in Acayucan, Mexico last week and was able to share cpm principles with some leaders there and there may be some very interested people there. A follow up training may happen in February or March. I will be traveling to Kenya in October to teach some leaders some very basic intro material about cpm. Please remember that in prayer. But now to the most important update. It really feels like we are "on the brink" of something tremendous in Honduras. Richard Crowder and Keith Travis drove from South Mexico to Honduras the first week of September, and Randy and Linda

I usually do not post another blog article so soon, but wanted to give an update to everyone about the Honduras project and the plans for this month. This is especially so that you will join in prayer for all of us that are working in the project. First of all, the Honduras team has continued to work in new areas even though the American missionary team has not been there since July 1. We believe that over 50 new discovery Bible studies have begun since then. In spite of political unrest the work of God continues to multiply in Honduras. Beginning tomorrow, September 2, there will be much travel for everyone involved. Randy and Linda Travis have been in Kentucky with me at our offices for most of August and have been preparing recorded materials for our studies to use. That process is coming to an end today, and tomorrow, Linda will travel to their home in Alabama to pack for their return to Honduras. Randy and I will travel together tomorrow toward Dallas, TX where we will atten

In this last look at Mark 4, let's check out what I am calling the Counter Intuitive principle. Mark 4: 30-32 "Again he said, 'What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.'" You could look at this principle in several different ways. You might say that this is a parable about the power of a seed. As they say, you can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed. Clearly it is talking about the kingdom of God growing from a small seedlike start, to a large multiplying movement. I have preferred the version in Matthew 13: 32 that says that the mustard seed grows into a "tree". I have a personal interpretive thought about this that when

Mark 4: 26-29. "He also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.'" The next biblical principle I want to highlight I am calling the "All By Itself" principle. In the last post, I looked at the parable of the sower and the 4 kinds of soil, representing the 3 fold cord of the word, understanding, and obedience which result in a harvest. This is central to the cpm strategy that we and others are using. In this next parable, Jesus said that the kingdom of God multiplies "All By Itself". What does this mean? This is what Roland Allen called "The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church" in his powerful book ma

Recently I read Neil Cole's excellent book, "Organic Church". I can't believe that I had not read it before. It is really great. He has done a marvelous job in exegeting cpm strategy from the New Testament. I realize that he has his own application of this strategy, and he doesn't seem to use the term church planting movements as much, but essentially he is talking about the same thing. I can really recommend this book. (While I am on book recommendations, check out "The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small is the New Big For Today's Church" by Tony and Felicity Dale and George Barna . It is tremendous, and they make numerous references to David Watson and the work he has done). At any rate, the thing I like most about Cole's book (other than the fact that he seems to think the same as I do about everything) is the exegetical tone of it. He is bringing out these principles from the scripture, and especially from the Gospels and Christ

In the last article I showed that Luke 10, the sending of the 70, was used in the early church and specifically by the Apostle Paul as a guideline in ministry. In this note, I want to return to that theme and look at how Paul used Luke 10. As I pointed out, Paul quotes from Luke 10:7 in 1 Timothy 5:18. It is interesting to me how he used it. First look at the 2 verses. Luke 10:7-"Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house." 1 Timothy 5:18-"For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages"." Paul quotes Jesus from Luke 10:7 and calls it Scripture, indicating that by the time he wrote 1 Timothy, Luke had already written his gospel, and that Paul saw it as Scripture. This is a point that has been noted by a number of conservative scholars in their commentaries on the book of 1 Timothy. Ev

In Church Planting Movements around the world, and especially those with which we have been associated and patterned after, Luke 10 and the Sending of the 70 has been used as a pattern for the work. The finding of persons of peace as a starting point is actually one of the critical elements. Recently, I have heard some questions raised about this. Is Luke 10 really about church planting? Jesus was not sending out church planters, it has been said. Are those of us in the field of cpm studies and practice doing violence to scripture, and doing eisegesis rather than exegesis of this passage? As I begin to address this question, let me first say that no one in the cpm movement is teaching or suggesting (intentionally) that Luke 10 is about church planting. Clearly it is not....the church did not even exist at that time (I am not splitting theological hairs here from my somewhat dispensational background, and if some covenental theology friend sees it differently, no problem). In Luke

This week I am spending time with Randy Travis, our strategy coordinator for the HCPM project. He and his wife Linda, and a wonderful couple from Mexico, Martin and Guadalupe, are here in Kentucky to produce some recordings for use in the project. The Travises are in the U.S. because of the problems in Honduras, but are planning to return in mid-August. We are using this time to do some things and acquire some equipment and materials that we were needing anyway, but that would have been delayed for a few months. However, because of events in Honduras, they came out and we are making good use of the time. (Please continue to pray for the situation in Honduras, as it continues to have an uncertain outcome. The inductive studies are continuing and new ones ares still beginning as the Honduran workers are continuing to find persons of peace and begin new studies.) I was on the way to pick Randy and Martin up for our work today, and was listening to the radio. I heard an ad for an

Last year when I did some blogs on the critical elements of church planting movements, I listed 19. My latest list, which I have from David Watson's blog, lists 21 elements. This list may continue to grow as cpms are further experienced worldwide and as they are further analyzed. At any rate, the best list and explanation that I know is the one on David Watson's blog, Touchpoint , dated April 4, 2008. One of the elements that I left off my list in my blog was Spiritual Warfare. I basically subsumed that one under persecution, but really it should be separated, because it involves much more than persecution. Here is what David Watson says about this element (number 20 on his list): 20. Spiritual Conflict/Warfare — In areas where the Gospel has never been preached, or in areas where traditional religions have reigned for a significant amount of time, it is not unusual to find those engaging in CPM activities confronted by Spiritual Conflicts that range from annoying to li

I want to update all the readers of the WME blog about where we are in the Honduras cpm project. Hopefully you have been able to keep up with some of the news from Honduras. One of the most helpful places that I have found is the Bloomberg .com website. They are posting multiple articles each day (at least as of this posting) about the situation in Honduras. It is just one way of getting some news of the situation down there. Randy and Linda Travis and their son Keith are in the U. S. Keith will be returning to Mexico in a few days. Randy and Linda will be coming up to the WME home office in Benton, Ky to work on some recording materials for use in our project. We will be producing some materials at a studio in Mayfield, Ky. Randy is working hard at his home in Alabama to produce the material that will be recorded for use in our project in Honduras. Randy will be with us the end of this month. Our goal is to use the time that they are out of the country of Honduras to do

On Sunday June 28, the sitting President of Honduras was removed from office and deported from the country. A new President was appointed. This action has been opposed by all surrounding governments as well as the Obama administration . This is being called an illegal coup by the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the United States government. On the other hand, a number of missionaries that I know or know of, and more conservative analysts are defending the action as legal and in accordance with the Honduran constitution . WME is not a political organization and exists only to advance the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the facilitation of a church planting ministry in Honduras. Our prayer is for a quick, peaceful resolution of the problem in Honduras. For Honduras we pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Since the 28 th of June, there has been unrest in Honduras. Road blocks and protests and

In the last blog I gave a report from our recent short term trip to Honduras. In this report I want to update all our readers about the progress of the project. God is truly doing something in the mountains of western Honduras. First a little background. This project is a very recent outreach. In September 2006, Randy Travis, our missionary in charge of the project, and I attended a seminar on church planting movements taught by David Watson. At that time we began to discuss what a cpm project might look like in Honduras. In November and December of 2006, Randy and his son Keith, along with WME missionary Richard Crowder , did an exploratory trip in Honduras to assess the need and opportunity for a cpm project there. On that trip the region where we would begin the work was decided. In January 2007, Randy presented a preliminary strategic plan for HCPM to me and I presented it to the WME board of directors, and the decision was made to move forward. David Watson and the te

The team of 16 hardworking cpmers has returned and is rejoicing in all that God did through them during the trip to help our Honduras cpm project. The team consisted of 13 people from the Cave Hill Independent Church of God in Versailles, Indiana and 3 others from Western Ky. Ben Holloway, a missionary evangelist from Madisonville , Kentucky and Daniel Slayden and I from Marshall County, Kentucky went with the Cave Hill team. Our mission was to assist our permanent team in Honduras that consists of 2 full time missionary couples and 1 part time couple. (Randy and Linda Travis' daughter and son-in-law, Angela and Nick also came down for this outreach). Our Honduran church planters made up the full contingent that were working together during the week. Our goal was to assist the team with practical projects that will help open and widen doors for the gospel in Honduras. The trip launched on May 30 and we all arrived home (after some flight difficulties because of weather) on June