I am presently in Greece, just outside Athens, near the ancient city of Marathon and overlooking the Aegean Sea. It is a gorgeous location with a great history, but my trip is far from being a vacation.
Twenty-three GEM and IMB missionaries are gathered for several days to challenge one another in “iron-on-iron” fashion to sharpen our strategy for the first-ever CityReach initiative. CityReach is an effort to engage 50 European cities in a space of 5 years with disciple multiplication movements. It is great to be learning from one another and in particular, from Steve Smith (author of the T4T book), Jeff Sundell (USA), and Peter Farmer (UK).
Here are some of the most valuable takeaway points that challenge me so far:
- We need a bigger vision. It must be God-sized and far-reaching. It’s not about what I want to happen, but what God wants to happen.
- I must train more. I can train more people than I think I can. We need to hold more vision days in more places to find people God is preparing for the work of rapidly expanding movements, to find people we can equip for this work.
- We need to move faster. Bring far-from-God people to decision. Get people sharing their faith more quickly. Get people in groups faster. Keep knowledge/content to a minimum and maximize on obedience and action.
- I have to teach people about Persons of Peace (POPs) more quickly and how to find and engage them.
- Not only should we go where the people are, but we must engage people in the context of their groups and connections rather than just win individuals. This is where streams can emerge.
- I like the “traffic light” analogy: Red light people are those who say “no”; green light people are those who say “yes” and become believers; the rest are yellow light people — we can offer to study the Bible in an outreach/discovery Bible study. Many potential POPs may be among these, so we don’t want to leave them unengaged.
- When finding yellow and green light people, I need to always ask, “When and where can we meet again?” and “Who else do you know that can meet with us?”
- Don’t just ask God to break your heart for your people group, but to break your heart for God. Abiding in Christ is where it all begins and where it all ends.
This represents just a few of the valuable insights of our week together, and we still have 2 days to go. I can’t wait to get home and put these things into motion.
What have I shared that challenges you today?
Which of these things will you put into practice?
