Exponential New Church Conference: Church Planting Leaders moving toward multiplication

April 20-24 we had the wonderful privilege of bringing together 17 church planting leaders, both nationals and missionaries, for the Exponential New Church Conference in Orlando FL. We met as a team before and afterwards and went together to take in some amazing speakers. The theme was "The Art of Movements." Our discussions were primarily about raising up and training church planters. It helped me a lot to get people together face-to-face as I build the new Global Church Planting Team.

George Klippenes, Church Planting Director for the EFCA, was so helpful generating prayer and finding scholarship money to bring the international leaders together. Good things are coming our of the interaction between USA church planters and those from other countries. The learning goes both ways. Ehab shared how God is bringing revival to some traditional churches in Egypt and sending our a wave of church planters from that country to others around. One of the biggest lessons is the variety of people God uses to multiply churches. Sometimes it is very grassroots and spontaneous; at other times it needs to be deliberate and strategically planned.
Between these two pictures you have all of our ReachGlobal team. What a joy it was to share with this rainbow coalition of battle tested leaders. They are working in:
Europe: Spain, Germany, Czech Republic
Asia: Indonesia, Myanmar, N. Thailand
Latin America: Brazil, Costa Rica
Africa: Ethiopia, Liberia, Congo
Middle East; Egypt
USA: Miami, CA and Chicago

Please pray for these men to advance Church Multiplication Training and to invest in many others through mentoring and coaching. Two of them from Africa launched the training in Togo in June and will be continuing in the Congo in July. The guys from Latin America will be working with me on training for leaders from 10 Latin American countries in November. Praise God for the reproduction He is bringing about and for the part I can play as a catalyst and coach.

India a land of contrasts - God is at work

The greater the darkness, the sweeter the light that pierces through. The greater the void of hope, the more precious the realization of what Jesus has done. Grace is absent in Eastern religion. Shiva saved the world from the devastation of the angry waters of the Ganges and the poison about to destroy humanity. But the requirements to gain his favor are endless and empty. What a contrast to worship on Palm Sunday and see the children singing Jesus’ praise and the men dancing to Indian tunes in praise of what God has done.

We saw the place Buddha taught his first 5 disciples and took a boat on the Ganges where people come for ceremonial cleansing and to die and be cremated on the river bank. They believe the water has spiritual properties that will give them a better existence n their next reincarnated state. How sad to see such strong but misplaced hope. I pray that I would be able to help them in some way with more training.

The pattern we heard in their testimonies is that in desperation they prayed to Jesus and God intervened by healing a child or delivering them from danger. The convert suffered abuse from his/her spouse and family but through perseverance and prayer won others and now whole families are following Jesus. Lay workers took us doing visitation and we met many who had come to Christ and prayed with them for their unsaved family members. In the past eleven years the first church plant has multiplied time and time again so that there are now 34 house fellowships. We taught some of the leaders… and learned so much from them. The pattern was repeated in Varanasi. There one church has become 18 in 8 short years. The workers who have other jobs and many struggles want to start more churches but asked if they should strengthen the existing ones first. We had a good discussion about that.

We flew into Kolkata (Calcutta) in the East. The names means Abode of Kali and at the main temple the priest told us 60 horses are sacrificed to Kali each day and many more goats. We saw people floating wooden statues of Shiva and Kali in the Bengal river as an offering to the Gods. At least, human sacrifices have ended. Every culture has its dark sides, its idolatry and its perversions. My impression is that India just has a more complex mix of false teaching and destructive beliefs. The congested flow of people was overwhelming at times. Personal space does not exist. The diversity and syncretism is mind boggling. Even with Sam’s explanations I sensed it would take the better part of a lifetime to wrap your mind ariunf India. Mark Twain wrote "In religion, all other countries are paupers... India is the only millionaire.” At least other struggle with this: "How can you sort out all these [Hindu] patterns-- family, regional, historical--and come to a simple understanding of the whole? The answer quite simply is: you cannot. No one can, or has, or perhaps ever will“ (Thomas Hopkins, The Hindu Religious Tradition, p. 2).

We were impressed with the leaders we met. In Kolkata many were from the Brahmin class. They were young, dedicated, missional, and had amazing testimonies. Suffering is part of their existence and their preparation. How can we help them without spoiling them or tempting them with western clerical models? Look what Buddha did with 5 disciples. Jesus sent out 11 apostles. God is doing great things. We visited some missionaries in New Delhi, a more modern city from the British Colonial period. From there it was a 15 hour flight covering 9 time zones to get home. It will take a while to adjust to the time changes.

Please pray that God will raise up national church planting coaches and trainers in India that will fan the flames and strengthen the multiplication so it carries into several more generations. Pray also for sustainable ways for them to support themselves or for partners to help support these regional leaders so they can develop, empower and release more workers for the harvest.

Back from Africa

Can you guess what Wanaume is Swahili for? ______ Hint: Next door there's Wanawake

This little girl doesn't care that Linda is having a bad hair day.

You guesed it. We just got back from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania February 26. The purpose of our trip was to meet church planters and explore ways to work with them. We served by translating in French during the teaching sessions and led a couple workshops. Listening is encouraging and we did a lot of listening and affirming. The teaching went well. That was dialogical and we all learned from each other in the areas of mentoring leaders and church multiplication. Gene and Dave Kiamu went over plans and curriculum design for church planter training in Africa.

The first morning we were awakened around 4:30 a.m. by the Islam call to prayer over the loudspeaker nearby. We plunged in and went on a Vision Trip to see some of the church planters and a school. We were struck by the abject poverty among other things, yet so encouraged by what God is doing through his servants. We stayed with two families that are working among Muslims and preparing lay church planters to reach a tribe called the Zamora. We can't share names or details. Most of the expatriates work sacrificially in tough conditions, especially those who try to reach nomadic tribes like the Fulani and Masai.

It was so good that Linda came! The African leaders also came with their wives and we were able to get to know them as couples. We spent some quality time with Dave Kiamu, the Africa church planting point person and his wife, Lucie. Gene spent hours translating literally 3 inches away from the ears of the French-speaking Congolese leaders, and had lots of side discussions while serving them in this way. One may lead to an open door to work with church planters there.

(Linda and her Congolese friends Claudine Selenga and Jeanette Bosokpale)

God is using the African leaders in amazing ways as well. The ones from Rwanda all lost family members in the recent genocides but are seeing God triumph in the midst of pain. Pastor Esron shared that he lost his mom and 2 siblings. He is leading a church planting movement. Their goal in 2004 was to go from 23 churches to 55 churches in a decade but they will surpass that goal as churches are multiplying faster than expected. The movement in the Congo has evangelized their region and are reaching the pygmy tribes and others on the other side of the Congo River by sending out missionaries. They plead for more training and partnerships to do more. They have formed their own mission organization called ReachAfrica. Gene will be working with two of those leaders.

They use Chronological Bible Narrative because the culture is oral, literacy is low, and stories are the best way to address worldview issues in their culture. That's how they learn. We learned about training and many other things. One of our greatest take-aways is CHE (Community Health Evangelism/ Education). It is a great way to combine compassion ministry with evangelism and lead to church planting. The community leaders "own" the projects. When the expatriate staff had to leave Congo because of the recent war, they didn't know what would happen to the CHE projects. Praise the Lord, they not only survived but their number doubled because they were "grass-roots" efforts. If you are interested in learning more listen to this cool video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYn7lVRtFpg

In the end we spent 3 days in the interior, on the plateau, and in Mikumi National Park. We saw amazing scenery and animals and praise God for His wonderful handiwork. It's totally different to see animals you normally see in a zoo. They are free, in their families, roaming and playing in their natural habitat. We slept in little African huts in the middle of the game park and heard animals during the night separated only by a wall of wood and mud bricks. We had elephants and Cape Buffalo within 100 yards, and could even hear them pulling the grass out of the ground. The last day we saw 8 lions in different settings. The last one was a male eating a fresh kill of Cape Buffalo!

We are filled with excitement in our spirits from all we learned and experienced, joy in our hearts from making so many new friends, burden in our souls from memories of faces weighed down with incredible needs and burdens. Gene's next trip is to Asia in a month but we have some immediate prayer requests.

Prayer Requests

For effective follow-up from this time in Africa. The list is long!

For discerning God's voice and understand His priorities as there is much to do.

Our kids are doing well but please continue to pray for their direction as they will be facing changes.

Please pray for Mario, a Colombian church planter to get a visa for Haiti this week. He is in the Dominican Republic trying to get in.

On March 21 Gene leaves for a 3-week trip to Mongolia, Thailand and India. Please hold him up.

Serving others to multiply kingdom communitites,

Gene

Passing the Baton and Building a New Team

What a journey 2008 has been! We began as church planters in Quebec and have been coaching church planters and training church planting coaches in Latin America since the year 2000.

Then this year we became grand-parents and love it! Annabelle Sophia was born to Jarrett and Michelle on Nov. 18 in Louisville, KY. They had the joy of spending 3 weeks with them. It's hard being a part now.

GOOD TRANSITIONS are good for everyone. We want to pass the baton well and raise up a new global church planting team. This meant finding replacements as church planting coaches in Latin America and raising up church planting coaches for each of our five divisions: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and MENA (Middle East-North Africa).

GOOD NEWS - On January 19^th at our Latin America Conference in Costa Rica they literally passed a baton in front of all the missionaries to Mike and Linda Gunderson who have been church planters and leaders of the Brazil missionaries. This year Gene will be taking Mike to meet leaders in some of the countries where church planting is taking place and together they will be organizing a Latin American Church Planting Summit. We were encouraged by the fact that they want to follow our pattern of working as a couple in their visits and coaching. Mike and Linda are great!

BUILDING TEAM – David was "accompanied by valiant men whose hearts the Lord had touched. (1 Sam 10:26)" We asked God for leaders with a coaching profile and a passion for multiplying kingdom communities. Our international leaders recommended people and God has been putting the team together in incredible ways! First he spoke clearly to Mike and Linda from Brazil. In March Dave Kiamu, a Liberian who is already training church planters agreed to join the team. Two wonderfully gifted men serving in Europe and Asia who are considering this role.

LEARNING – Gene's mom asked: "What do you know about church planting in China?" He responded: "Very little. But hopefully I'll someone who does." We are keenly aware of our limitations and of the immensity of this challenge. We have begun going to each major region of the world to interview church planters, learn about their victories and struggles, and come alongside key leaders (both missionary and national). We started at the Church Planting Training Institute in Sopron Hungary in November. Right after Christmas we were in Bangkok, Thailand for the Asia Conference. Then we went on to the Latin America Conference Jan 14-21. From Feb 14 to 22 we will be at the Africa Conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our desire is to serve and encourage as we learn. Gene gave workshops in Bangkok on Church Multiplication and Mentoring Leaders and will be doing the same in Tanzania. Linda uses her great relational abilities to build bridges and understand people.

NEXT STEPS – We have been invited to follow-up with church planters by sending a quarterly church planting newsletter to church planters globally, interact with them over strategy issues and help them coach others using skype (free phone over the internet). Gene was invited to return to Bangkok and make side trips to India, Mongolia and Japan in March. In April our new team will be gathering before and after a church planting convention that will take place in Orlando, FL. God is opening the way before us.

Change is never easy. Please pray for faith, wisdom and humility as we engage with new leaders, new cultures and new ministries.

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