Can we build a virtual team of people on different continents from different cultures?

As church planting director, I can't coach church planters and develop training myself in our five divisions: Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and MENA (Middle East-North Africa). No cookie-cutter approach will do. It needs to look different in each setting. So the logical thing is to build a team. In fact the reason we have a director of church planting is to raise up church planting coaches and catalysts in all these parts of the world. Now the question comes: Is this doable given different time zones, cultures, expectations, and financial restrictions?

We will have church planting coaches, by God's grace and we already have identified some of them for three of our divisions: Latin America, Europe and Africa – but will they be a loose network connected only through their relationship with me? Or will they be a real virtual team that will provide peer-coaching, mutual learning, and encouragement on the journey? I would like to try and here's what I think it will take:

1. Face-to-face time to build relations initially.
   
   1. We already have a first gathering planned around the Exponential New Church Conference April 19-23 in Orlando Florida.
      
   2. We need a church sponsor that will gather our team early in 2010. I would like the spouse to come for it to be a team retreat located on the campus of a church that shares our vision.
      
   3. Afterwards we will need to gather face-to-face once a year. This will be costly but we could make it worthwhile by using the time for training and meeting in sites where best practices are taking place.
      
2. Some real mutual learning and personal growth must come from this team. The value must be felt by all. It would be a waste of time to sit around in meetings or conferences. Our times together must be highly interactional, well planned, and edifying spiritually – more like a field trip than a meeting.
   
3. We need to use the best technology for virtual communication. I am praying for an associate who will help with this and also help master trainers set up their church planter training around the world.
   
4. We will need monthly communication. This can be synchronous using telephone conferencing. Thanks to Skype that could even be free! When it is 2 p.m. in Eastern Europe, it is one in Liberia, 8 a.m. in Florida and 8 p.m. in Jakarta. So it is possible to all be on the phone the same day. We can also have a team website where people can post what they are learning, add prayer requests, and download ideas and resources.
   
5. Being a team is a choice. Ultimately the church planting point persons must see the value in this and commit to it.
   

What do you think? Impossible dream? Would you pray for God's leading? I am not good at technology but learned how to use some of the tools as a professor with the Latin American Training Network. Would you pray that God would lead me to an associate who would head up the technology and training dimensions of this ministry? Thanks.

CHURCH PLANTING IN EUROPE

We had an awesome time in Europe: 3 cities – Vienna, Sopron, Hungary and the region around Venice Italy. It involved 5 flights, 4 train rides and numerous bus rides, all without a single mishap. Praise God!

The first two days in Vienna and the last week in Friuli, Italy we were with our dear friends Tom and Maureen who are in their first term of missionary service there doing ESL, evangelism, and helping with administration. Linda helped teach ESL and we participated in their first Bible study in the town of Valvasone.

Most of our time was visiting, learning and encouraging each other in God’s work. We also met several Italian church planters and attended a church plant on Sunday. Sam Spatola who has planted churches in Southern and Northern Italy and now leads a church planting Mission said it this way: “6/10 of Italians have the daunting challenge of reaching 60 million people and planting churches in 32,000 towns and villages without a gospel witness. The average church is under 50 people, can’t support it’s pastor, and is having a hard time having an impact in the community.”


We don’t believe God has given up on Europe and want to do everything in our ability to see Gospel seeds sprout and spread throughout these lands. Please pray for more national church planters for the harvest and coaches to come alongside them!

Our good friends Tom and Maureen.

The center piece was a church planting training institute in Hungary at which we met around 150 people involved in church planting from about 25 countries – mostly European but we also spent time with someone working in Jordan. I did not have to teach (my friend Craig did that) but they introduced us and had me explain my new role and vision. That opened a lot of opportunities to meet with people, join the discussion groups, and make appointments around meals. The day went from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. so we had no time to visit Sopron but that was OK. We loved meeting church planters and learning about each unique situation.

Praise God! We have found our main point person for Europe and others who can become church planting coaches in their region. He is a missionary in the Czech Republic who is already coaching and teaching and comes with high recommendations.

About 50 national church planters and leaders participated. The president of the church in Slovakia asked: “Can you help us train a church planting coach for our country even though we don’t have any missionaries there?” And he introduced me to a church planter who could be prepare for that role. The welcome was wonderful and there is SO MUCH to follow-up on and we need wisdom and direction to follow-up on new relationships and openings.

Thank you for your prayers. Let me give you an example of God’s intervention. On Thursday I woke up at 4 a.m. and God brought to mind four people I should try to get together with between meetings the last day. I knew time would be short and asked God to lead me to those people. In each case I ran into them at a break or at a meal and was able to have the conversations that were needed. It was reassuring to know that those were divine encounter not haphazard meetings. The last supper was with a missionary in Jordan building his church planting team and it was neat to see how our years leading a team in Montreal and working with teams in Latin America allowed us to speak into his situation. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting and working with such a great and diverse group of church planters!

Who says missionaries don't have fun! Linda celebrated her birthday there and we had a great time discovering new tastes and sights as a couple. Her favorite taste treat was chocolata - pure thick hot chocolate without milk, like liquid gold to the taste buds! Mine was the delicious mixed seafood straight from the Adriatic . A highlight for us was visiting Venice. The city is one immense and magnificent work of art. We took a water ferry to a charming fishing village called Burano where they make lace. God is so good to us.

Jesus- Hope for Europe!

150 Church Planters and Church Leaders at the Church Planting Training Institute in Sopron Hungary

Building a global church planting team

How do you build a team of church planting (CP) point persons from all around the world?

Especially when these point persons will be the among best church planting leaders, trainers and coaches in their part of the world. Well basically, I have chosen to pray a lot and ask God and our Mission's international leaders to recommend people. As I meet them and we get to know each other God will show us if we are to work together. Last week that is what happened in Minneapolis.

The first one I can announce is Kavid Kiamu from Monrovia, Liberia. He is already involved in ReachGlobal Africa a new Missionary movement of African leaders from several parts of the continent. They have a burden to send church planters to unreached pockets like certain pigmy tribes and Muslim urban populations to the north. The great thing is that David has already demonstrated a track record of church planting, multiplication, and Muslim missions from his local church in Monrovia.

As people they discipled for Christ moved away David worked with them to start new churches (10 or more). Then they took the next step and send a member to plants churches among Muslims in neighboring Sierra Leone. Two have been started there. The work is still young but we have a lot to learn from our Liberian brothers and I am excited to work with David. Here is a picture of him and his family.

His wife's name is Lucy. Two of the children they have in the picture are nephews they are caring for and one is an adopted child.

Dave and I want to build a good coaching relationship and have a plan. Please pray that God would bless our friendship and get us off to a great start. David is returning home after a couple weeks in the USA. Next time I will introduce our team member for Latin America. Please pray for God to send other key CP players of his choice from Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Serving with you to multiply kingdom communties

Gene Wilson

I know it may be risky and not politically correct to say “Mission Accomplished!” But that’s how I feel so I’ll say it: “HAITI MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Thank you for praying” The Mission was to give training in Hermeneutics (interpreting Scripture) and Homiletics (Preaching/Teaching Scripture) to lay leaders and pastors who are already in a position to teach but haven’t had any formal training. Fifty were registered and 45 completed the 4-day course. Sixteen were from Cap Haitian and the others came from four smaller town in the North. Eight churches were represented. . Most were young people who were starting but there were a few experienced pastors and theological students interested in honing their skills.



Pastor Art and I each taught two days. It was a blessing to work with him since he is doing his doctorate with Haddon Robinson – a master preacher – on how to teach others how to preach. I enjoyed the teamwork and fellowship. At the end of the course the students did a practice session applying the principles. I was proud of them! And they were so grateful they sent two students leaders forward to formally thank me and give me an official “brotherly kiss” of gratitude. To my surprise most of the students lined up to give me a hug, kiss or handshake. I told them: “If you keep it up I’ll have to come back next year!” What a joy to work with such grateful and hardworking learners.

In the evening we went to two towns (Grande-Rivière du Nord and Limonade) where two of the mature pastors taking the course preached night after night for a week. At both places it was held outside on the main public square where a stage had been set up for the occasion. It was an awesome experience seeing people stream out of their homes at the sound of the festive music. Over 1,000 came out most evenings. One night it started pouring down rain during the concert. Some ran for cover but many just stayed, dancing in the rain to songs of praise with a Caribbean beat. In Grand-Riviere du Nord the pastor estimated 20 came forward for Christ and several times that number responded in Limonade.

Of course there were challenges: Heat, intense heat, with no relief and no air conditioning. There was a fan at night that helped but 3 nights the electricity went out so I woke up in a sweat. Travel is complicated in Haiti. On my way there two porters were fighting over the “privilege” of carrying my suitcase filled with Bibles and resource books. They dropped it and it burst open. Then they both wanted a tip. J To navigate the roads you need a lunar rover and a strong stomach. One night in a packed bus with standing room only, we came to an abrupt stop on the way to the crusade. I later found out that two police on motorcycles stopped the driver and took him in handcuffs to jail because he didn’t have his driver’s license. They went to the pastor’s house and harassed his wife wanting a payoff to let the man out of jail. Fortunately there was another driver on the bus and we got to the crusade. The pastor called the chief of police and got his driver out of jail. The policemen’s plot backfired and they called every five minutes to say it was all a misunderstanding.

The weekend was a highlight for me. Saturday I helped Pastor Henoc move speakers and a generator from the crusade and we had a good time sharing. Although I would feel overwhelmed with 3 churches, a K-13 school, and many compassion ministries, Henoc dreams of starting a university, planting more churches and helping to transform communities. We also planned for Mario Moreno’s arrival and missionary work there. Sunday I preached on the occasion of “Harvest Sunday.” People brought in baskets of every imaginable fruit, several I had never seen, and decorated the walls with sugar cane branches. Sugar cane was the reason the French dragged them from Africa; now sugar cane is no longer a symbol of exploitation but a instrument to praise God. After the service we headed to the river were a dozen young people were baptized. I wish you could see it. Well you can!

I arrived the day after one hurricane and left the day before hurricane Gustav. Please pray for the people there who have so little margin in their lives.
Pastor Art will be returning in February. He will be able to follow up and encourage the students in their preaching and teaching. They were very happy with the course but saddened they we didn’t have a certificate to give them. It is very important culturally to recognize achievements. I’m be printing certificates. And doing it with a smile. Thank you for making this trip possible through your giving and prayers. Besides giving each student a a course notebook and Homiletics manual in French or Creole (their choice), we were able to give each church represented 2 sets of 3 research tools (picture): a study Bible that has a concordance, atlas and indexes, a Basic Theology Book by Thiessen, and a New Testament Bible Knowledge Commentary.

All for now.


Gene
Dr. Gene Wilson
Church Planting Coach Latin America
Church Planting Director

gene.wilson@efca.org
www.geneandlindawilson.blogspot.com
http://www.churchplanternetwork.org/
H: 954-915-8085

Questions and Answers about Our New Ministry

I am posting a letter from our Mission Leader, Gary Hunter, but I also wanted to write to you personally about a change coming up in our ministry. God is opening a door for us to work with church planters on a global scale.

What will your new ministry be?
I will continue with the same mission, ReachGlobal, in the same area of calling and service, but from a new position: Church Planting Director. This will be a global ministry developing and coaching Church Planting leaders and helping them with best practices and new initiatives. It’s working with and through a team of Church Panting leaders from every region of the world.

What does this change involve on a personal level?
Since the ministry is global and my team is international, it doesn’t require a move. It will involve more diverse and longer trips since our five areas are Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. The learning curve is great. We will be learning about ministry in many diverse areas of the world and meeting new people. It may sound overwhelming, but I can see how God has been preparing us for it. He has allowed me to live in Morocco, France, the U.S., and Quebec, and serve in Latin America. For several years, Linda and I have had the desire to help other regions develop training and use our fluency in French. This will be another step of multiplication.

What will Linda’s role be?
We have always worked as a team. Linda has great insights into people and their needs. Initially we would like to go together to each of the areas of the world together to meet the people and understand the facts on the ground. We will look at each trip and ask: “Is this for Gene, for Linda, or for both of us?”

How will this affect your finances?
We won’t have a guaranteed salary or ministry budget. We will continue to depend on prayer and financial supporters like you. This increased job responsibility does NOT mean ANY increase in salary. As always, we must raise our support, and will need to raise finances for the increased cost of travel and ministry development in 2009. My leaders have agreed to help by referring us to new potential partners. So please continue to give as the Lord leads you, and pray that our support team will expand.

How did this come about?
We did not seek this increased responsibility. We love working with our Latin America team. In March 2008, our leaders asked us to consider expanding our ministry because of the great needs in other parts of the world. In May, after time in prayer and seeking counsel, we accepted.

What is next?
In the upcoming months, I will be meeting with our international leaders to identify church planting coaches from each area of the world that can be part of our global church planting team (GCPT). That will take me to St Louis, MO later this month and probably to Europe and Asia before the end of the year. Please pray for God’s favor and for wisdom. We would like to see the GCPT assembled by April 2009.

Would you pray at least weekly for us?

Here are some immediate prayer requests:

1. Understanding & wisdom as we plan and strategize; every trip directed and used by God.
2. That God would provide enough for us to go together for our introductory trip to each area.
3. Meetings with International Leaders in St Louis, MO June 22-24.
4. That God would expand our support team with new ministry partners.
5. Blessing on our time with our families and with supporting churches this summer.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ throughout all generations.”

In Him,

Gene and Linda Wilson

ReachGlobal, 901 East 78th Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55420-1300,
(954) 915-8085, gene.wilson@efca.org, lindawilson@efca.org

Prayer Requests

· Grow in Faith, Humility, Wisdom
· Strong marriage and teamwork
· New Team of 6 Church Planting Leaders
· 20 new supporters – churches & families
· 100 Church Planter Training Platforms by 2015 (Acts 19)

Thank you for praying!

June 2008


Greetings,

I want to thank you for being a faithful supporter of the ministry of Gene and Linda Wilson. God has used Gene and Linda in wonderful ways throughout Latin America these past years. Your participation with them has made the growth in church planting effectiveness in Latin America possible.

I am pleased to announce that Gene will be assuming the role of Director of Church Planting for all of ReachGlobal. In this new role, he will be able to implement around the world what he has so effectively developed in Latin America. One of the big challenges will be developing a team of people in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East who can join Gene in seeing greater effectiveness in church planting. As we work toward developing multiplication models of church planting around the world, the role Gene will play is a key component.

Gene and Linda will need your prayer, friendship and financial support more than ever as they make this transition. Gene will focus 1/3 of his time to this new role and 2/3 of his time to church planting in Latin America for the remainder of 2008. In 2009, he will focus 2/3 of his time to being Director of Church Planting for ReachGlobal and 1/3 of his time to the work in Latin America. During this transition period, he will be recruiting and developing a replacement for his work in Latin America. Please pray for him and Linda during this transition.

This new role will require global travel and, therefore, more financial support. Please consider helping Gene with the additional financial support necessary for this important ministry. In addition, the challenge of finding and developing his replacement for the ministry in Latin America, and recruiting and developing a team of church planting trainers and coaches around the world, will be a big task and needs to be bathed in prayer. Please join Gene in praying that God will provide all the staff and financial resources necessary to see this ministry move ahead effectively.


Yours because He loves,


Gary Hunter
Associate Executive Director of Ministry Operations.

901 East 78th Street
Minneapolis, MN
55420-1300

phone (952) 854-1300
toll free (800) 745-2202

www.efca.org
www.goreachglobal.com