World Missions & Evangelism, Inc.

To the readers of the blog, apologies for the delay in an update. I have been traveling a lot and actually am in between trips right now. Here is what is happening. On June 4, Eric (one of our WME missionaries focused on our project in Indonesia) and I traveled to the Atlanta area to attend a conference on Islam. We were powerfully impacted with reports and information about what God is doing to reach people of Muslim background. I travelled from there to California on June 5 and was there until June 19. Here about 30 people focused on church planting movement strategy worldwide gathered for 2 weeks of strategy, Bible study, and prayer. This meeting represented partnering organizations who are focused on cpm in the nations and reported amazing things from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and even the United States. Altogether, the group reported over 12,000 churches planted in the last 5 years. Praises to God and celebration for what He has done abounded. The meetings and individual discus...

Jerry Rankin and Ed Stetzer have come out with an outstanding book called "Spiritual Warfare and Missions". This book fills a real need in the Missions community. It is published by B&H BOOKS and is a sequel to "Spiritual Warfare" by Rankin. Rankin's first book on this subject is an outstanding look at the warfare of every believer, filled with examples from the mission field. In this new book, Rankin and Stetzer are focusing on the areas of warfare that are specifically related to Missions. They identify 8 strategies of Satan to undermine the World Mission enterprise. 1. Keep Nations Closed to the Gospel 2. Keep People Groups Hidden from Our Awareness 3. Persecution of Believers and the Church 4. Convince Christians Missions Is Optional 5. Erode the Authority of God's Word 6. Distort the Call of God 7. Erode the Faith of God's People 8. Destroy the Spiritual Vitality of the Church I am still reading this book and am being enlightened and inspired by...

In the works that God is doing worldwide that are resulting in church planting movements, there are 2 characteristics that I think are very prominent. They comprise one of the critical elements of cpm, namely, the authority of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are all that are needed to begin. I have called this the 1:8 factor and based it on Joshua 1:8 and Acts 1:8 which demonstrate the vital importance of the Word and the Spirit respectively. The Word (Scripture) and the Spirit of God are the source of authority and power in every church planting movement (and according to a new video, The unreached: Did you know? that can be accessed on Youtube, there are 20 plus cpms in India, 20 plus cpms in China, and 16 plus cpms in Africa). By focusing on the Word and the Spirit we are looking at the principle from God's side: it's His Word and His Spirit. But let's look at it from the human side. From our perspective, we need attitudes of Absolute Confidence and Total Dependence....

The Honduras church planting movement project is moving forward this year with much work and activity of our Honduran team. I called it "boots on the ground" work in a blog in April. A team of 4 will be going down to visit the project in July. It will include myself in order to do on the ground strategy work with Randy Travis, our team leader. Also, Ben Holloway will be making his 2nd trip to our Honduran project. Ben is an evangelist who does much international work and is helping us network and connect with other churches and groups in the US and abroad. Brian Shelton will be coming from Oasis Christian Center in Paducah, KY. Oasis is one of our partnering churches, and is the leading supporter of the Honduras project to date. Finally the team will be rounded out by Larry Hardin, who is a WME missionary to Kenya. Larry and his wife Barbara, have a tremendous ministry there which leads a multi-campus Bible training center. It was with them that we helped conduct a ...

Here is a preview of some of the things we'll be involved in this spring and summer as the year 2010 progresses. I will be doing a lot of traveling relative to church planting movement work in the next several months. May 1-3 I will be in the Minneapolis area to speak at a church about WME's mission work with a dear friend who I have known for many years, Pastor Gary Palermo. I am looking forward to visiting with he and his family and meeting the people at the church where he pastors. May 17-18 I will be in Denver with the board of directors of UEMI on which I serve. UEMI is the ministry of John Peter Kirubagaran who has been a longtime partner with WME and with whom we have worked together in various projects over the years, resulting in the planting of nearly 200 churches. We are looking forward to being with Cornerstone Bible Church for a missions service on May 23. This wonderful church in Crofton, KY and its pastor, Kris Page, is a great encouragement to me and a bles...

In this blog, I want to give a quick update to our readers on the Honduras project and the situation in Honduras. As you know, last year was a very trying time for the nation of Honduras. For 5 months, Honduras passed through a political crisis that at times looked as if it would take the country to the brink of civil war. Meanwhile, the work of the Honduras CPM project continued. So here is a report on the state of the nation and the state of the HCPM project. The National Situation. The following report is from our friends in the Cornerstone foundation, another tremendous ministry in Honduras. They have explained the situation is a very succinct way. "On the 27th of January (2010) the day agreed to in the Tegucigalpa Accord, Porfirio Lobo Sosa was inaugurated as president of Honduras. He granted amnesty to Mel Zelaya and others for their political crimes (e.g. treason). The criminal charges (fraud, corruption, etc.), however, still stand. But the day of the inauguration...

Occasionally I teach one of the classes in the Perspectives course. To my readers I would like to highly recommend the Perspectives Class that is sponsored by the U. S. Center For World Mission in Pasadena California. It is really the most life changing class I have ever taken, and it is a privilege to be able to teach one of the lessons. The lesson that I have taught several times is lesson 7 that concerns missions history in the last 2 centuries. I am both inspired and fascinated by the history of the Church and especially by missions history. There is much to be gained from the study of history and in this blog I want to take a generalized look at the entire history of the Church in terms of the structural elements that determine the capacity of the church to multiply. In March, I wrote about the "Obstacles to Church Planting Movements". In that series of 3 blogs we were addressing the hindrances to CPM in the western context, specifically in the USA. I identified 3...