Missionary Methods - Paul's or ours?

What do we learn from Paul about what missionaries do? Above all things we learn that Paul was a strategic thinker, with well defined results in mind for his missionary work. Paul  assumed that wherever he went he would preach the gospel and the result would  be that people would be saved and churches established. To achieve these results he had the following strategies in mind:

How to pray for a nation in time of crisis

When a nation is in crisis we can either see what God sees for the nation, and align our hearts and thoughts with Him, or we can be overwhelmed by circumstances and allow offense and cynicism to take control of our heart. We can see how God sees and have faith, or we can see evil and tragedy without discernment - and lose faith. There is no in-between place for the heart of a Christian.

How do we respond to such a crisis? Does the word of God have anything relevant to say about such a crisis?

Who do we disciple?

"Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop . . . a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." (Matt. 13:8)

1. Jesus told us to look for the good soil (parable of the soil, sower and seed) - He didn't say not to love hard, rocky or thorny ground, but He did put an emphasis on attending to those who are responsive to the good news as a priority over those who are not ready to obey Him. We shouldn't choose between the "good soil" folks and others, but give the greatest attention to those who obey Jesus in contrast to those who don't. Keep loving the others, but invest most of our time in those who are prepared to obey.

The "MAWL" Process

"Discovery Groups" exist to lead a group of people to Christ and form a new church. During the limited  lifespan of the group, the role of the church planter changes. His goal is to remove himself from the group so that leadership will emerge from within the group. The MAWL process describes this:

The ABC's of a "D-Group"

Discovery Groups ("D-Groups") are discipleship groups that can grow into little churches or remain small groups in a local church. The key element of D-Groups is multiplication – that is what gets people active in being a disciple and making disciples.

Here is a quick guideline on running a D-Group by using the ABC process. Use this as a "how to" guide and keep in mind as a church planter you will be training trainers to start more D-Groups that can grow into new churches. You do this not so much by doing it yourself but by coaching others.

The Disciple Making Process

Below are a few foundational discipleship practices that when followed will produce a simple five-step process for making disciples (and stating simple churches). Each step in the process has a priority that overflows into practical application, which together serves as a discipleship track for bringing new disciples to faith and helping them make more disciples. We call this process of training people to be disciple makers, "T4T", or Training for Trainers.