C O N V E R G E M A G A Z I N E // F A L L 2 017
Churches
send
that
Taking the gospel to those here, near and far 4 // Sending is the future
8 // Why send?
12 // Where should you go?
START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
Church Planting churchplanting@converge.org Church Strengthening strengthening@converge.org International Ministries missions@converge.org converge.org ConvergeWorldwide @convergeww converge_ww
VOLUME 9 // NUMBER 5 EDITOR Bob Putman DESIGNER/PRODUCTION MANAGER Pam Nelsen CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Fran Anderson, Mickey Seward To add or remove your name from our mailing list, call 800.323.4215, M-F, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. est point@converge.org Point (ISSN/1546-3257) is published quarterly (with a special edition in December) by the Baptist General Conference, 2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL 60005. Printed in the U.S.A. Nonprofit Standard postage paid at Arlington Heights, Ill., and at additional mailing offices.
The trend not to send In fall 2015, I was asked to give a presentation at a Global Alliance for Church Multiplication conference (gacx) on “The State of the American Church.” It was a huge topic. In my presentation, I told them I am thrilled by many good trends in evangelism, discipleship and biblical teaching I see in churches these days. But I also noted several troubling trends. For one, in the American church these days the focus on numerical growth has outpaced the commitment to spiritual health. Although many congregations have larger attendances on weekends, during the week they also have fewer people living out the character and priorities of Jesus. Churches are gathering crowds but neglecting the core. If the core is not developed, leaders are not raised up. This results in the next trend: they choose free agency over farm systems. In free agency in sports, teams recruit from other teams rather than train their own players. In the farm system, they train their own. Churches most often choose free agency — when they need new staff, they take leaders of other churches rather than raise up their own. This cannibalization of ministry fills the hole in one ministry but leaves a huge gap in another. The resulting scarcity of leaders and the fear of losing staff result in one final bad trend: retaining rather than sending. The Great Commission is a sending mandate every church must take seriously. God gave his first and best to reach the world, and he expects the local church to do the same. Romans 10:14b15a (esv) says, “And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” In this issue of Point, we will address the opportunity God has given us to start and strengthen churches together — worldwide. We accomplish this when we are committed to “sending.” May God honor our willingness to trust him. Better Together,
Scott Ridout President, Converge
© 2017 Baptist General Conference. POSTMASTER Send address changes to Point, 2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL 60005-4193. SCRIPTURE REFERENCE Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. REPRINT PERMISSION Permission is granted to photocopy articles in small quantities for personal, church or school use. Please protect our copyright by writing or typing before copying: “Reproduced from Point by permission.” This permission does not extend to articles reprinted from other publications, reports for another publication or large quantity reproductions. For such purposes, written permission must be obtained from Point or from the original source.
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Looking ahead As we continue to start and strengthen churches together worldwide, we want to provide you with the best resources to effectively reach those in your community and around the world. To do so, we are taking time to make some exciting updates to Point magazine — including a digital version. You can expect the new issue to land in your mailbox, or inbox, in 2018. In the meantime, make sure to sign up to receive Newsline, Converge’s weekly email with news and stories about all God is doing throughout Converge: http://eepurl.com/b85NQL.
ERIC JOHNSON
Converge is a movement of over 1300 churches working to help people meet, know and follow Jesus. We do this by starting and strengthening churches together worldwide.
Why the future belongs to churches that send By J.D. Greear
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Here, near and far By Ivan Veldhuizen
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Are you a missionary in the making? By Roger Peterson
Extras 8 // To send or not to send? 10 // Short-term missions are not enough 14 // Vital sending stats 16 // Lord, send me 20 // You never know your impact 21 // I knew I was a failure
Cover “God’s worldwide mission defines every believer’s primary responsibility until Jesus returns.” Sending remains God’s primary means to deliver the gospel to the lost. Is he calling you to become one sent? START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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Why the future belongs to churches that send How does Jesus continue the work of salvation that commenced with his death and resurrection? Through churches like yours. BY J.D. GREEAR
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Many people are bored in church. They are afflicted with a nagging sense that they ought to be doing something — that there is some meaningful mission they are supposed to be part of. But they can’t quite get their mind around what that is. And they wonder if when they get to heaven they are going to be rebuked for failing to do whatever it was God wanted them to do. They go to churches where they hear that Jesus is building his church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against them. But they don’t see themselves, or their church, prevailing against the gates of hell. They seem to be just getting by. Many can’t remember when a single adult convert — one truly brought out of darkness into light — came to Jesus in their church. And they certainly can’t remember one whose story they were personally part of. Most churches have a difficult time maintaining their ground, much less storming anything that belongs to Satan. Gates, after all, are defensive ramparts, not offensive weapons. “Prevailing against the gates of hell” does not mean keeping Satan out of our backyards, but plundering his kingdom. I want to suggest why the future of Christianity belongs to churches that send, and why those of us who want to see the world reached will be more committed to raising up and sending out than we are to gathering and counting.
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Increasingly, in a “post-Christian” society, unbelievers ill simply not make their way into our churches, no w matter how “attractive” we make them.
For years, the Western church has enjoyed a common Christian language with the culture through which we could communicate the gospel. Not everyone went to church, but the bedrock of the culture was Christian. Our primary focus has been calling “lapsed” or delinquent Christians back to the God of their fathers. But our world in the West is changing. The number of people checking “none” for religious affiliation on census forms increases at an astounding rate each year.1 “Nones” do not casually make their way into churches — for any reason. We have to think of them as we would people of a completely different religion. A British friend of mine, Steve Timmis cites a recent study in Great Britain in which 70 percent of Brits declare they have no intention of ever attending a church service for any reason. Not at Easter. Not for funerals or Christmas Eve services. For more than two-thirds of the people in Great Britain, nothing will carry them naturally into a church. In light of this, Steve comments: That means new styles of worship will not reach them. Fresh expressions of church will not reach them. Alpha and Christianity Explored will not reach them. Churches meeting in pubs will not reach them…. The vast majority of un-churched and de-churched people would not turn
to the church, even if faced with difficult personal circumstances or in the event of national tragedies. It is not a question of “improving the product” of church meetings and evangelistic events. It means reaching people apart from meetings and events.2 Great Britain is a few years ahead of the United States in secularization, but judging by the rapidly increasing percentage of those reporting “none” for religious affiliation, I believe we will be there before too long. This means that if we don’t equip people to carry the gospel outside our meetings, our events, our gatherings and programs, we are going to lose all influence with them. There is another alternative: we can grow the pie. But that means teaching our people to engage people outside the church.
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The presence of God accompanies those who send.
If we want our people to really know Jesus, we will teach them to live “sent.” Our God is a sending God, and nearly every time he speaks to someone in Scripture he is sending them on a mission. When God called Abraham to follow him, he made clear that the blessing he would bestow on Abraham was not only for him. Through him he would bless “all the families of the earth” (Gen. 12:1-3, esv). The writer of Psalm 67, reflecting on that promise, prayed that God would bless Israel so that “your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations” (v. 2, nkjv). The Old Testament Book of Jonah presents the sad picture of a nation running away from this commission, seeking only its own blessing. Jonah, who is a picture of the whole nation of Israel, is more concerned with his own creature comforts and personal vengeances than the message of mercy and blessing that God had given him to share with the nations. Jesus came as the new Israel, the joyfully sent prophet that Jonah refused to become. Jesus is described as “sent” more than 44 times in the Gospel of John, and “you are sent” is his one-sentence commission for every disciple: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). The church is now Jesus’ vehicle for the completion of his mission. Jesus finished the purchase of our salvation, paying the full price for our sin on the cross and shattering the powers of death
START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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in the resurrection, but the mission of salvation is not yet complete. Through us Jesus continues the work of salvation that he commenced in his death and resurrection (Col. 1:24; Acts 1:1). Christopher Wright says, “God’s mission is what fills the gap between the scattering of the nations in Genesis 12 and the healing of the nations in Revelation 22.”3 God’s worldwide mission, he says, defines every believer’s primary responsibility until Jesus returns. So the question is no longer if we are sent, only where and how. Many of us are waiting on a voice from heaven to tell us what God has already told us in a verse: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).
The problem, of course, is not those large crowds of growing attendance. It’s devoting most, if not all, of our energy into producing only that. Crowds won’t last, even when you gather them by doing miracles, as Jesus did. Can any of us hope to have more interesting or memorable sermons than he gave? Yet, when he died, where were the 5000 he fed? Surely they had seen and heard enough to stick around. Even Jesus’ preaching and miracles, by themselves, were not sufficient to produce enduring disciples. Long-term movements are not built by swelling crowds, even when Jesus is the one doing the gathering. They come only when we take the time to replicate our faith in someone else’s heart.
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The passion that sustains mission
esus’ promises of “greatness” in the church J are always related to sending.
Jesus’ promises to help those devoted to sending are truly astounding. To be honest, they are so astounding that sometimes I have a hard time taking them seriously. In the Gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples that they should be excited that he was leaving them, because that meant he would send them “another Helper” who would make them more effective than even he could make them. “It is to your advantage that I go away,” he said, “because then you will get the Holy Spirit” (John 16:7 paraphrased). Imagine how absurd that must have sounded to those disciples! It was to their advantage that Jesus leave? How awesome would it be to have Jesus as your personal pastor? Every sermon would be a “10.” Every mission strategy “heaven sent” and every decision “divine.” If you had a theological question, he could just answer it. And if offerings were low one month, he could send out a deacon to catch a fish with $1,000 in its mouth (see Matt. 17:27). Even those benefits would be inferior, Jesus tells us, to a church of “ordinary Christians” empowered by the Holy Spirit. Pastors are given, Paul says, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. The saints (in Paul’s usage, ordinary Christians) are the primary ones to do the ministry. How we build our churches today turns that principle on its head. We are excited when large crowds throng to hear a talented teacher. That’s simply not what Jesus was most excited about, and it’s not how he built his own ministry.
Those who go the farthest and give the most are those who are most aware of how far Jesus went and how much he gave up to reach them. They are normal people who take seriously the good news of the gospel and think soberly about its implications. Do you want to develop a sending culture at your church? Teach your people to delight in the glorious riches of what Christ has done on their behalf. Marvel in it every week. Ask God to open the eyes of their hearts to see how high, how wide, how deep and how long the love of God is for them. Ask God to let them feel that love. Let it simmer in them until it sets their hearts on fire. And then, I promise you, they will figure out a way to reach their world. They will soar in mission — without any need for you to smack them into action. Apart from genuine, gospel-rooted heart change, sending will never take root in our churches. With it, we won’t be able to stop it. The gospel alone produces the passion that sustains the mission. Programs and institutions can be useful servants of passion, but never its sustenance. The gospel is its sustenance. So abide in the gospel. Sending fruit will grow from deep gospel roots. As Jesus said, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (John 15:5). n J.D. Greear is pastor of The Summit Church, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and author of several books. This excerpt is taken from Gaining by Losing, by J.D. Greear. Copyright © 2015 by J.D. Greear. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com.
“My wife Melissa and I have supported missions in various ways for years. Recently, when Ivan Veldhuizen spoke at our church’s mission weekend, our pastor invited people forward who would make a commitment to serve by going. My whole body felt as if it was on fire, and I started weeping. I knew we were being called to go. We partnered with Converge, and God has used the whole process — meeting IM’s awesome staff, attending mac (Missionary Assessment Center) and Focus orientation — to confirm that we are on the right path. We are excited to be part of the Converge family.”
Dustin Leland, Sunrise Baptist Church, Custer, Washington
David Olson, The American Church in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 176-180, and Pat Hood, The Sending Church: The Church Must Leave the Building (Nashville: B&H Publishers, 2013), 19. 2Albert Mohler, “Life in Post-Denominational America” (Sept. 22, 2012). www.albertmohler.com/2009/09/22/life-in-a-post-denominational-america/ (accessed 1/15/2014). 3Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2012), 15. 1
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TO SEND OR NOT TO SEND? The missionary moment that changed everything for this pastor and his church. BY JOHN WRIGHT
Neil Moyer, an elder of our church, and I began our missions trip visiting missionaries in Makassar, a large city in Indonesia. Makassar has a population of 1.5 million and about 2 million motor scooters. A few days later, Neil and I found ourselves in remote Papua New Guinea visiting the first family our church, Crosswalk Community, had ever sent to overseas missions. Before turning in one evening, a missionary asked if I would like to take the next day’s mission helicopter flight. My adventurous side leapt with excitement, and I jumped on that opportunity. Little did I know we would be delivering a tribe’s first set of Bibles translated in their language. When we landed, everyone came to meet us. The tribespeople were elated to receive the Bibles, hugging each other in celebration. I found it extremely moving. Later, as we flew over dozens of villages in the mountains and hills, it struck me that God has people in each village and tribe he wants to reach with his love and fame (Rev. 5:9). With this realization, I knew I could never again view missions as I had.
Why send missionaries Before our missions trip, some of our people often questioned our using so much of our resources to send missionaries. “There is so much to do here,” they protested. “Isn’t it better for them to reach and teach their own?” As their pastor, I tried to find what was behind their objections and sought the answer in Scripture. Throughout the Bible we are told to “be fruitful, multiply (not just add) and fill the earth.” Genesis 11:1-9 shows what happens when people don’t obey. Rather than gather to scatter, they gather to make a name for themselves. That’s glory hijacking. Unfortunately, we can do the same in our churches. But God has an unimaginable desire to see his glory fill the earth. From Gen-
esis through Revelation, this passion is expressed. There can be no doubt he is a sending God. John 3:16 tells us God so loves the world that he gave (sent) his only Son. Scripture also tells us that going, or sending, is a natural response to the Spirit-filled life. Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When we ask the Holy Spirit to fill and lead us, he stirs within us a passion to share God’s name, his honor and fame. The Holy Spirit is always witnessing about Jesus. In his book Western Christians in Global Mission, author Paul Borthwick claims 90 percent of professing evangelicals will never share Jesus with anyone. What does this say about our relationship to the Holy Spirit? Another major reason to send workers into missions work is found in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10: “We make it our aim to please the heart of God.” Crosswalk Community has found God is pleased when we enjoy taking his fame across the street and around the world. Dr. David Sills of Reaching and Teaching says there is one trained pastor for every 250 people in the U.S. But there is about one trained pastor for every 455,000 people outside the U.S. The Scripture and the world’s urgent need to hear the gospel convinced Crosswalk to be a sending church.
Missional-minded and missional-hearted advice In developing our missions leadership team, we adopted guidelines from omf and from the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course. In these, six words are key: Learn. Pray. Go. Send. Welcome. Mobilize. Here’s how we try to put them into practice at Crosswalk:
LEARN. We began to see “crazy cycles” that help move us
from addition to multiplication. Here’s one: what people know is the greatest influence in how they feel, and how they feel is the greatest influence in what they do. It plays out like this. The more passionate people are about God, the more they worship him. And the more they worship him, the more missional they become. Being more passionate about God means being more passionate about missions. As John Piper wrote in Let the Nations Be Glad, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” We urge everyone to learn by reading missional books, taking the Perspectives course and going on short-term missions trips.
PRAY.
Each Sunday, we pray for a different people group. The 6:4 Fellowship (64fellowship.com) is a great resource for this. Delivering an unexpected gift to this remote Papua community changed John’s view of missions.
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GO. It’s helpful to take leaders on short-term missions trips.
There is nothing like experiential knowledge. If its spiritual lead-
ers can’t catch God’s heart for people groups, it will be difficult for the church to become missional. There is a big difference between a church with a missions ministry and a church that is missional. A missional church has a growing heartbeat to glorify God above all.
SEND. Converge helped us discover another crazy cycle: Start-
ing, Strengthening and Sending. Many may argue about where to start this cycle. I believe it’s best to gather leadership and pray through that. We began by focusing on health rather than growth. We knew balanced things are healthy, and healthy things grow stronger. A church’s strength is not its keeping ability but its sending ability. We believe every follower of Jesus is a sender or is sent — sometimes both.
WELCOME. We experience great joy when missionaries return
and share how God is using us to take the good news to others. It pours fuel on our gospel flames.
MOBILIZE. In five years, we have seen God send four couples
from our church to missions. And we have another staff couple and a single person preparing to go soon. It seems as if God is putting most of our staff on a conveyor belt and sending them to different ethnicities. It is a joy to watch people go and to see God bring in new people. I call this “healthy circulation.” Often people pray for a movement within the church but not necessarily through the church. Now that we’ve settled the question of “sending,” we’re enjoying a circulation of missionaries through our church that is life-giving. n John Wright is pastor of Crosswalk Community Church, Titusville, Florida, and a volunteer assessor for Converge’s Missionary Assessment Center.
‘ With your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.’ REVELATION 5:9b START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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Short-term missions are not BY MAC HEAVENER
In developing strategy for each Converge church to send a longterm missionary by 2025, the role of short-term missions must be evaluated. You might infer from the article title that I believe there is little value in short-term missions. To the contrary, a short-term missions (stm) component in a long-term missions strategy can be very positive, depending on how well it’s coordinated with the vocational missionary. Trinity Baptist College (Jacksonville, Florida) began working with Ivan Veldhuizen, Converge executive director of International Ministries, at the beginning of this year. We were convinced that combining our efforts would make us better together. Since that initial meeting, the college has sent dozens of students to Converge for assessment; many of them have already been approved and have even begun making survey trips. Trinity Baptist Church missions director Greg Mann has incorporated in our tbc missions classes the “Qualities of Converge Missionaries” that Veldhuizen shared with us in January. The tbc missions curriculum provides our students with a solid foundation for a vocational ministry, which partially accounts for our students’ success in the assessment process and on the field. Our stms and internship components also provide students with real-life experiences as additional ways to learn important lessons.
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Short-termers: their value and challenges
Daniel Warren, associate pastor at Trinity Baptist Church, recently announced we have 60 members serving in stms on five continents. Their work includes assisting full-time missionaries with leadership training, church revivals, evangelism, discipleship, community projects and orphan care. In Introduction to Global Missions (a text we use at tbc), Roger Peterson, Converge Mobilization director, points out that stms can be quickly sent. This distinction creates stm opportunities for others who have talents such as medical care, construction, disaster relief and other time-sensitive projects. The opportunity for students to work side-by-side with these kinds of professionals under the supervision of vocational missionaries is invaluable. Short-term missionaries require little to no formal training. However, it also means the vocational missionaries the stms assist may have to deal with communication or cultural issues that could create more problems than they solve. Therefore, they should be a complement to — not a substitute for — career missionaries. The need for theological training, language nuances and cultural understanding (especially as it relates to evangelism) takes time that only long-term missionaries are able to invest. Field-driven partnerships between sending churches and career missionaries will help to avoid unnecessary waste of resources and dependencies on external assets.
enough On the mission field with Converge
Many of our college alumni and church members are long-term vocational missionaries who are already blessed with help from current students on stms. The Alderman family is an example of two generations of Trinity Baptist Church members who have been full-time missionaries since the senior Aldermans began their work in Togo, West Africa. tbc students and alumni often assist their work. Recent Trinity graduate Andrew Brothers and his fiancée, Miranda McPherson, are working through the various stages of Converge assessment and currently are on a survey trip in Togo to explore the possibility of joining more recent tbc alumni JJ, Melissa and Stephanie Alderman. Trinity student Ben Patton and his fiancée, Trinity 2017 valedictorian Kelsi Brock, are also traveling with a Converge representative on a survey trip in Europe. Having completed the assessment process, they are exploring possible ministry opportunities on that continent. Mann reports we currently support more than 150 vocational missionaries. They greatly appreciate the help they often receive from short-term missions, especially when it’s field-driven by vocational missionary partners. However, Mann believes stms are not enough. Among factors to be considered should be a plan that is in place back home to apply the passion and skills people gain while on the field. Our college curriculum includes methods for the
vocational missionary to help plan their supporting churches’ stm efforts for optimum value for all.
Doing missions better together
To accomplish the Converge goal of having each church send one missionary by 2025, we invite you to investigate the advantage of educating your missions candidates at Trinity Baptist College. Converge churches will be especially pleased to see how closely our curriculum supports their own objectives. Trinity’s commitment to long-term missions, as well as our shared vision and values, are just a few of the reasons we chose to be part of the Converge network. Senior pastor Tom Messer often reminds our church members that “all Christians are called to missions, some in their secular vocation and others as their vocation.” For that reason, we also offer other degrees for those desiring professional and spiritual growth “in their vocation.” n Mac Heavener is president of Trinity Baptist College, Jacksonville, Florida. tbc and the related Trinity Baptist Church partner with Converge to send missionaries to unreached people groups.
For more information on short- or long-term missions, contact Roger Peterson at rogerp@converge.org. START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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HERe, NEAR & FAR
Which comes first — your local community, cross-cultural ministry or the world’s unreached people groups? The answer may surprise you. BY IVAN VELDHUIZEN
“I don’t know why you’re traveling all over the world when there’s so much to do right here!” an exasperated friend expressed to me with strong emotion. I’ve heard similar statements from pastors: “When we get things fixed here, we can think of going there.” Or, “We have more than enough problems to take care of in our own neighborhood.” These statements sound perfectly logical. I’m convinced, however, these individuals and others like them are forgetting part of our biblical mandate.
Sequential or simultaneous? Acts 1:8 records Jesus’ statement about being his witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Four dimensions of ministry are revealed in Jesus’ commissioning: 1. Jerusalem — your local region. 2. All Judea — an emphasis to expand your witness. 3. Samaria — cross-cultural ministry right where you are, crossing psychological and religious hurdles. 4. The ends of the earth — cross-cultural ministry faraway. The Acts commissioning compels us to consistently push the gospel outward in an ever-increasing scope of influence. But there is another important factor here. The four categories are connected with the conjunction “and,” which is not standard grammar unless a specific point is to be made through the sentence structure. Well-known author and pastor Rick Warren states, “These four dimensions of ministry, expressed in this way, are intended to be simultaneous, not sequential.” In other words, we don’t wait until we’ve reached our Jerusalem to influence Judea, or Samaria or the world’s remotest parts. If Jesus’ followers go sequential — focusing on the ministries one at a time — many peoples in the world will
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never hear the gospel because our work at home is never finished. It has been almost 2000 years since Jesus gave us the command to go and “disciple the ethne’ (foreign nations).” Yet over 6500 people groups that are 2 percent or less Christian remain unreached in the world. And another 1300 people groups are unengaged and unreached, having no Christians and no one currently working among them to declare the gospel. How can this be? Has the church focused on doing ministry sequentially rather than simultaneously? Could it be we have been remiss in pushing the gospel with an urgency to deliver the good news of Jesus to every people group in the world?
What I have seen Having been a pastor for 28 years, I understand the need to resist sideways energy — those ministry engagements that may be good but fail to push us towards our stated objectives. However, in the churches I’ve led, some very significant things happened when all four dimensions of ministry were simultaneously engaged with strategic intentionality: • The churches grew — and they grew primarily through conversion growth. • There was holistic, radical transformation in the lives of our regular attenders.
• Our people became more generous. •T he communities were impacted by our church’s engagement among them. • Our influence was extended far beyond the local church. • There was an obvious blessing of God upon our church. As the lead pastor of Edinbrook Church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, I was convinced we needed to intentionally engage all four dimensions simultaneously. When I arrived as pastor in 1996, the church was struggling to survive, even considering dissolution shortly before my arrival. Sixteen years later, Edinbrook had developed into a healthy, dynamic church that was passionate for the lost here, near and far. Consider a few of the achievements in each of the four categories: Jerusalem: We grew from a congregation of 150 to 1500, now passionate for the lost in our community. In each of my last two years as pastor, we saw over 200 first-time decisions for Christ, with follow-up and discipleship teams ready to help each one. Judea: We expanded our reach by helping plant two new African churches in the Twin Cities, consulting with and assisting struggling churches and providing worship mentoring for many churches around us. Samaria: We adopted a grade school near us where 62 percent of the students lived under the poverty level, most first-generation immigrants from African nations. This required weekly volunteers, special projects for the school and creatively honoring the teachers.
We also consistently engaged in various service projects in the community, many cross-cultural, striving to be a highly valued presence there. The ends of the earth: Our missions giving increased from $4,000 annually to $180,000 annually. The largest Sunday morning offering in the church’s history took place in 2007, when $157,000 was given for a Converge ministry in Africa. Short-term missions was nonexistent in 1996, but for my last five years at Edinbrook, we sent out 100 short-termers each year. We also developed a burden for unreached peoples — those in the world with no access to the gospel — sending a culturally similar pastor to a suffering unreached people group in India to bring them to faith in Christ. The church has also sent numerous longer-term missionaries into the world in recent years. The four dimensions of ministry are not either/or — they’re all/ and. The more we find balance in all four dimensions of ministry, the more we will experience God’s favor. When our city’s mayor heard I was leaving Edinbrook for my current role, he declared an Edinbrook Church Day for the city, recognizing our value and influence in the community. At the same time, this church aggressively embraced the responsibility and privilege of bringing the gospel to the lost peoples of the world. Like Edinbrook, your church can expand its missions reach. Let us courageously recommit ourselves to the great cause of bringing Jesus to lost people here, near and far. n Ivan Veldhuizen is executive director of Converge International Ministries.
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Vital
SENDING
Vital Sending Stats Stats
The strategy for sending missionaries is rapidly changing. This affects how churches and missionary-sending groups focus their efforts. What should we reconsider? Are other countries taking up the task? Where is Converge focusing its efforts?
The change in missionary sending 100% 89%
99.99%
The continents to which the West used to send most of the missionary force are now the major missionary senders.
80% 65%
63%
60% Western
Where most missionaries go
40%
99.99 percent of people work among 44.3 percent of the world that already has the gospel. There is one missionary for every 278,431 people in unreached people groups. That figure does not include majority-world missionaries sent into the 10/40 window.
20%
(North America & Europe) 30%
37%
11%
Sources: joshuaproject.net thetravelingteam.org
0%
Non-Western 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 Source: Global Mapping International
Where we send Since June 2016, Converge has played a major role in engaging 20 Unengaged Unreached People Groups in India and Nepal. In these 20 UUPGs, trained nationals we support have made 9904 gospel presentations in 519 villages. Results:
46
new churches
407
new believers
33
baptisms
In our five-year partnership with The Timothy Initiative, we’ve seen the following results among 200 Unreached People Groups across India, Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam, Pakistan and Egypt:
6532
churches planted
Source: The Timothy Initiative (ttionline.org)
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120,000 new believers (estimated)
6332
widows and orphans cared for
Demand Investments Minimum Rate Demand $100 1.000% Church Savings $5,000 1.125% Individual Retirement Accounts Minimum Rate Under $100,000 2.500% Over $100,000 2.625% Term Investments Term
Rate
6-Month 1 .1 2 5 %
1.250%
$100,000
1.375%
$250,000
1.375%
$100
1-Year
1.500% $100,000
1.625%
$250,000
2-Year
1.625%
$100
1.750%
$100,000
1.875%
$250,000
3-Year*
2.750%
$100
2.750%
$100,000
2.750%
$250,000
4-Year
2.000% $100
2 .1 2 5 % $100,000
2.250% 5-Year
Earn interest, change lives Invest in starting and strengthening churches like Southfield Community — and earn interest on your investment.
csfund@converge.org | 877 228 8810 cornerstonetoday.org
3 years 2.75%
$100
“Cornerstone Fund partnered with us a little over two years ago to help us move from a temporary facility to a permanent home. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would already need to begin a Phase II expansion project. But God had other plans. We desperately need more parking and more space for children, students, large events and Journey Groups. With Cornerstone’s help, a Phase II Expansion Project will be completed in time for our unique Day Camp outreach next summer. We can’t wait to see what God does next!” Pastor Dennis Papp, Southfield Community Church, Channahon, Illinois
Minimum Investment
$250,000
2.250% $100 2.375% $30,000
2.500%
2.625% $250,000
$100,000
* Rates for term investments are subject to change without notice.
TERM INVESTMENT ($100 minimum) Rates subject to change.
This shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such an offer, solicitation or sale is not authorized. The offering is made solely by the OFFERING CIRCULAR. The offering involves certain risks, which are more fully disclosed in the Offering Circular under the heading “Risk Factors.” These investments are not FDIC or SIPC insured. In the event the Fund exercises its right to redeem a Certificate prior to maturity and upon 60 days notice to the holder thereof, payment of the outstanding principal and interest will be made to the holder to the date of redemption, rather than to the Certificate’s maturity date. START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
15
BY TWANNA HENDERSON, WITH SELENA GABRIEL AND KELLEY BERGESON
“And Jesus said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation’” (Mark 16:15). His commission to the disciples is the same to us today. He has charged us to seek and save the lost. Chaplain Captain Tamara Rue takes this charge seriously. She served three years in the U.S. Air Force at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, recently reassigned to Kirkland air base in New Mexico. “I have a heart for God first, then a heart for people and a heart for airmen,” she states.
Tamara first felt God calling her to ministry in her sophomore year at Jackson State University (Mississippi) in summer 1995. While attending an International Fellowship program, she sensed God calling her to attend seminary. She had rededicated her life to Christ earlier that year through Campus Crusade for Christ. She heard the call again after graduating from the University of Denver graduate school. “God was drawing me to full-time ministry, but I was focused on finding an international development job,” she says. Five years later, while she was in post-graduate school, God showed her in a dream he was calling her to ministry. She didn’t fully understand until she volunteered at a senior resident health care center and saw the ministry need. She had a similar spiritual experience four months later when she attended Denver Seminary’s preview session. Tamara says, “There God showed me he wanted me to be a chaplain.” In her first chaplain class at seminary, she saw God had shaped her life to serve in that role. As a child of parents in the military, and later as an adult, she lived and worked among diverse populations: various ages, races, ethnicities, cultures, faith traditions, etc. “God used people, dreams, devotions and sermons to amplify his call. I had peace when I finally said yes,” she says. “Doors opened only God could open. I believed he had plans for me to serve as a full-time senior care chaplain. But he put an active-duty chaplain recruiter on my path to lead me to active duty in the Air Force.”
16 POINT // FALL 2017
The Lord has used Tamara in significant ways. She launched a prayer-line and other spiritual programs at Maxwell AFB, while fulfilling the responsibilities of Sunday services, counseling airmen and their dependents and mentoring student chaplains. She saw the Holy Spirit work in crisis situations as she counseled married couples during conflicts, suicidal individuals and assault victims. She recalls, “I still keep in touch with a successful young lady who contemplated suicide, believing no one understood her pain.” Tamara sees her ministry as a visible reminder of the holy. She says, “Chaplains bring airmen to God to help them be spiritually fit and resilient. “I have faced challenges as a single adult, a woman and a Black American,” she continues. “For example, I was asked to officiate at a retired service member’s memorial service. The family preferred a male chaplain. I tried to honor their request by finding one. Unfortunately, I was the only chaplain available. The family moved the service time earlier without notifying me. I discovered this when I arrived to officiate. But despite this and similar experiences, God always put the right people on my path to help me feel safe when sharing these experiences, and I received encouraging feedback from my supporters. I forgave detractors and learned from such situations.”
Tamara says, “God encourages me through his Word, inspiring sermons, my personal praise and worship, friends, family, colleagues, mentors — who support and coach me — and through answered prayers. Tamara stays motivated and on task by remembering God’s goodness and his promises. She knows she must continue to trust him as he calls her to serve people in various lands. “I am his vessel who said yes to his call and will for my life.” Tamara believes one’s call must be pursued diligently and wholeheartedly. “If I love God, then I must also love the people he has assigned to me,” she says.
If you’re sensing God’s call to ministry, he may have wired you to serve on the front lines. Follow God’s voice. Make a compassionate difference in your church, your community, the world. Align yourself with other women leaders. Seek ministry support groups like the Converge Bridge Network and invest in the lives of women who look to you to set an example. Be encouraged, and let him send you. To learn more about the Converge Bridge Network, contact director Rev. Twanna Henderson, twanna.henderson@ converge.org, or email bridgenetwork@converge.org. n
Twanna Henderson is director of Converge Bridge Network, Selena Gabriel is director of One by One and Kelley Bergeson is a Converge-endorsed medical chaplain.
Throughout Converge, God is using women like chaplain Tamara Rue as his hands and feet in vocational ministry and church leadership. Within our network of churches and international ministry, they employ their gifts and strengths as an expression of God’s love and grace. They lead and serve in urban and rural communities and in local and global contexts where he has called them. Here are three examples.
Linnea Winquist Linnea serves as a chaplain at two hospitals in Chicago’s western suburbs. Prior to chaplaincy, Linnea worked with Kids Alive International to rescue orphans and at-risk children in Guatemala.
Rev. Susan Thompson Susan serves as pastor of Adult and Care Ministries at Ridgewood Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota. God blessed Susan with a love for broken people and those marginalized from church or society.
Tina Gibbs Tina and her husband Dan serve as Converge missionaries in Nigeria, focused on community development ministries. These include the expansion of their AIDS education and treatment ministry into a hospital and leadership development initiatives among leaders in Gembu.
START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
17
?
In your church 2 to 4 percent have the spiritual gift-mix and godly call to be missionaries. Can you spot them? Are you one of them? BY ROGER PETERSON
When I was 26, thanks to my parents’ generosity from an inheritance they received from Grandma, I collected the first stamp in my new U.S. passport. I received the stamp in Tel Aviv, on my way to the land of the Bible, where I also visited my family. My dad, a pastor, was studying in Israel’s Jerusalem/Bethlehem area. “Life-changing” doesn’t come close to characterizing that spiritually awakening trip for me. I waded in the Jordan River, experienced firsthand the glorious triumph of the empty Garden Tomb and scrunched my 6'4" body through the grotto’s tight passageway into the spot in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, said to be where Jesus was born. Back home in Minneapolis, seven months later, I was tracked down in the church hallway by my pastor’s wife, blurting out, “Roger, come with us to Haiti this winter!” Immediately, my then non-missionary brain informed my kingdom-building heart, “Good! Another stamp in my passport!” Even though I wound up going as a short-term missionary for the wrong reason, God used the wretched, Voodoo-
entrenched conditions so prevalent throughout much of Haiti to warm my selfish heart. I began to care about the spiritual and physical needs of the entire world that God so loves. Now more than 120 passport stamps later (acquired through my short-term missions trips) I remain convinced Jesus is God’s answer to every broken relationship, every need, every pathetic human condition around the globe. Yet much of the world remains in utter isolation1 from this good news: n Of the nearly 400 million Buddhists, 85 percent don’t know a single Christian person. n Of the 1 billion Hindus, 86 percent don’t know any Christians whatsoever. n And of the Muslim bloc, numbering close to 1.4 billion people, 86 percent don’t personally know a single Christian. Not even one.
Getting personal How can our God-loved “neighbors” ever hope to understand the saving claims of Christ? Yes, radio and television reach much of the earth, often helping non-Christians come to faith in Christ. And our internet-wired tech world provides other opportunities to learn about Jesus. But usually life’s important decisions happen only in personal, face-to-face encounters. (If you’re married, did you seal the deal with a text message, or did you ask your beloved face-to-face?) Our loving Triune God, perfectly entwined as Father, Son
— PASSPORT — 18 POINT // FALL 2017
and Holy Spirit, is all about personal, face-to-face relationship. God also is about our personal, face-to-face, loving, healthy, reconciled, restored relationships — with him and with one another. Jesus affirms this personal connection as loving God with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Matt. 22:36-40, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27, John 13:34-35). Our neighbors around the world need to hear about Jesus. But they won’t hear within the context of that allimportant personal face-to-face relationship without your church sending missionaries (Rom. 10:14). And these missionaries are willing to slog it out to learn the language and culture and to love — unconditionally — their new neighbors you’ve sent them to serve. Are you a missionary-in-the-making — someone who has done a short-term missions trip and sensed God’s call to return longer-term? Are you one of the estimated 2 to 4 percent “average” church members who have the spiritual gift-mix and godly call to become a longer-term missionary? Are you waiting for your pastor to ask to pray with you about your becoming a longer-term missionary? (Pastors, your folks are waiting for just this.)
Nonnegotiable missionary qualities The first nonnegotiable quality of a missionary is loving God (again, this #1 quality is how Jesus summed up the entire Old Testament). Missionaries personally experience God’s love and, although never perfecting their journey this side of heaven, remain on a lifelong pursuit of loving God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind. Piggybacked onto this first quality of loving God is an affirmation of one’s call to missionary service. Our very first missionaries, Barnabas and Saul, were affirmed by the leaders of the early church and by the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:1-3). Pastors, when you identify those 2 to 4 percent of your flock, affirm them for missionary service personally and, after Holy Spiritled prayer and counsel with your elders, affirm them publicly. Converge International Ministries can help in your affirmation process. Three times each year we conduct a Missionary Assessment Center (mac) in Orlando, Florida. Each mac
helps candidates affirm their call to missions and identify important steps necessary to grind out their call successfully — as healthy, effective missionaries — for the long haul. Converge can help you get that next stamp in your passport. We’ll help make sure it’s the right stamp to the right country for the right reason with the right people group still waiting to hear about Jesus. n Roger Peterson is director of Mobilization, Converge International Ministries: rogerp@converge.org. 1
Statistics from “GodSpace” in Mission Maker Magazine 2009.
WHAT DO CONVERGE MISSIONARIES DO? n Catalyze church planting movements We find creative, strategic ways to help plant new churches. Healthy indigenous churches are the most effective, culturally relevant way to reach local people for Christ.
n Develop transformational leaders with
culturally sensitive and effective strategies We constantly identify new potential leaders. We support, empower and work alongside each one, using local, culturally credible methods.
n Contribute to the overall health of Converge We are better together. We are a worldwide team of missionary servant leaders on behalf of our 1300+ U.S. Converge churches.
n Effectively represent Christ to lost people We live godly, culturally persuasive lives. This strengthens our unrelenting efforts to help people meet, know and follow Jesus.
n Continually transform into the image of Christ Although never perfecting our journey this side of heaven, we commit to a lifelong pursuit of loving God. We allow his Holy Spirit to convict our sin and continually grow us in Christ-likeness.
— PASSPORT — START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
19
SEN D ON E
You never know your impact God rewired us to survive and thrive, and the payoff was joy in serving with a purpose. BY SCOTT HARPE
“Sounds like a great time to go to the mission field.” This timely challenge from mission-minded friends resulted in my family and I arriving in Thailand in May 2001 to serve for a year at Peace Fellowship Church and Santisuk English School. Converge missionaries Steve and Nopaluck Cable had started this strategic gospel outreach in this Buddhist country 25 years ago. My wife Michelle and I had never been on a missions trip or even traveled abroad. But we trusted the Lord to help us raise financial support and adjust to Thai culture, food and weather. Our children were young (10, 8 and 5) and accustomed to country living with room to run and play. In Bangkok, we moved into a small 14thfloor apartment with no playground or place to ride bikes. But we found many great opportunities to invest in the lives of our Thai students.
Fully equipped and supported Most Thai schools teach English from primary school through high school. The students develop a vocabulary and grammar foundation but lack listening and speaking skills. This creates a nice niche for Santisuk and our volunteers, who generally have no experience teaching or interacting with non-English speakers. Santisuk provides all the textbooks, training and support needed to help teachers use their natural Englishspeaking abilities to help our adult students. We were amazed at how quickly students improved their skills as we taught in class and spent time eating and hanging out together. Our children attracted students to our home and other activities and enjoyed interacting with and even teaching them to speak English. Our 12 months in Thailand passed quickly. We soon found ourselves back in Michigan, overflowing with gratitude to the Lord for using all five of us and wondering what to do with all the love we felt for him and our Thai students. It was clear we needed to pray and fast about the Lord’s plan for us. We returned to Bangkok 18 months later and served for four months. We realized we needed and wanted to make a bigger commitment to this ministry. So we returned to Michigan, downsized our house and lives and decided to seek the Lord’s direction year by year.
This led to our spending six months per year serving at Santisuk and six months in Michigan for the next several years. Michelle continued to homeschool our children in both countries, and the Lord provided work for me to support us while in the U.S. We were very blessed to have our church and several friends provide our financial support for our time in Thailand.
Meet a real need, earn credibility and trust In June 2010, we returned to Michigan and decided to stay for a few years while we helped our children adjust to college and American life. God had rewired us to survive and thrive in a totally different culture and undoing some of that was difficult. Over the next three years I made four trips to Bangkok to lead small teams to serve for a month at Santisuk. This kept my toes in the water and further kindled my desire to return on a full-time basis. Finally, in 2014, with two children graduated from college and one starting, Michelle and I returned to serve four months at Santisuk. I was thrilled with Michelle’s passion for sharing Christ with Thai people as she became more fully involved at school and church than she had been during the homeschooling years. We decided to serve eight months in 2015, and that led us to fulltime service in 2016. We really enjoy teaching conversational English, sharing Christ with our students and teaching the Bible one-on-one with believers and seekers. The ministry model at Santisuk is simple: meet a real need of Thai people by providing affordable, personable English instruction. This builds credibility and trust so that when we share our testimonies and God’s Word (in English), students listen and some respond. When we integrate Thai members of our church into our outreach activities, the students meet Christians who speak their language and can relate to them in every way. We’ve seen the Lord work through these relationships to bring many new believers to worship and love him. Thai friends are saved from their sins, God is glorified and we get the joy of serving with a purpose. n
Scott and Michelle Harpe have served on numerous short-term missions at Santisuk English School, Bangkok, Thailand. Scott recently completed a year as SES director.
20 POINT // FALL 2017
R E ACH ON E
I knew I was a failure Thai teenager Shane’s life was a wreck, and he knew it. Then an unexpected door opened before him. BY SHANE
My name is Shane, and I was born in Bangkok, Thailand. My mother is a government official and my father, a lawyer. My family seemed like any other on the outside, but inside it was not. My dad is an alcoholic. He always used to fight with my mom. When I was 5 years old, I saw my dad try to shoot my mom three different times. He was always destroying my house. I had no hope, no one to talk to. When I was 12, I started to drink, smoke and use drugs. I became addicted and soon began selling drugs. I would wake at 3 in the afternoon, play video games until 6 and then meet my friends to do things together. I came home and drank from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. Then I would wake again at three p.m. During the school year, I failed almost all my subjects because I didn’t even try. I knew I was a failure in every area of life. My life was an unending, meaningless circle.
English: a way to get more money from Mom One day a friend invited me to study English. I was interested because, according to traditions in Thai families, I could get more money from my mom if I went to an extra school — and I could use that money to buy cigarettes or drugs. I came to Santisuk English School January 3, 2013. I could not understand any English at all. I wondered why my teacher wanted to teach me and treated me nicely. Even when I asked very stupid questions, she didn’t mind. Sometimes she didn’t know the answer to my question. The next day she would come to class and give me the answer. I started to wonder why these people were so nice. I heard there were Christians in this school, and I wanted to see what Christians looked like. So February 8, 2013, I went alone to my first Santisuk church meeting, even though I was not invited. At first I didn’t like the people. I thought they were too nice, too smiley and too friendly to me. I thought they lied to themselves and lived in their own world. That first night, before the service I sat by one of my teachers, who couldn’t communicate much with me. Later, when we were eating, I sat by a foreign stranger who had a bright book. I asked him, “What is that?” “This is the Bible,” he said and opened it and showed me the first chapter. I could not understand what he said at all, but at that
time I always carried a dictionary. He translated all the words for me. I was amazed he wanted me to know about God that much. After the meal, I went to the service. They sang songs about God. I looked around and could not find their God image. I stood up and sat down and stood up and sat down again, just doing what they did. And then I saw the offering bags and thought, They are robbing people of money again.
‘Never met the guy named Jesus’ Suddenly, one guy went up front and preached about the Old Testament story of Joseph. He told how Joseph didn’t sleep with Potiphar’s wife because he loved God. I was stunned and had many questions about Joseph and God. Then the speaker asked, “What is love?” I had no idea. I had never received love from my parents. I had never been loved by my friends. The speaker said, “God is love.” I can’t explain my feelings in that moment. The speaker asked, “Do you know how much God loves you?” I thought, I don’t know. He told the crowd, “God sent his only Son to die on a cross for you!” Again, I couldn’t explain my feelings. I had never met the guy named Jesus, and I had never done anything for him. Why would he want to save me? If he was God, he would have no reason to forgive me. I was totally unworthy. I was nothing. I was not the kind of person he should save. I wondered who God was and why he did that for me. I decided to seek God. I came to church again and again and attended one of the cell groups. I thought: Why should I wait for him. He already saved me at the cross, and he blesses me every single day. Why shouldn’t I accept him to be my God and my Savior? I desired to accept Christ, so on March 10, 2013, that’s what I did. After I came to Christ, my life changed a lot. I stopped drinking, smoking and using drugs. God used me to help save my mom, my neighbor and my best friend and his brother. I realized I could catch on to English quickly. I could have never come this far without God and the people God used to change my life. I thank them, and may God bless them. n
Shane is an assistant cell leader, worship translator and part-time English teacher at Santisuk English School, Bangkok, Thailand. He attends the main campus church, Peace Fellowship.
START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
21
HAPPENINGS
PEOPLE Finishing well in Ethiopia On August 31, Converge missionary Becky Osell returned from medical work in Ethiopia, having served there since September 1990. She formally retires on January 1, 2018. Becky’s departure puts the “period” on 68 years of fruitful Converge ministry in Ethiopia. After gaining approval from Emperor Haile Selassie in 1949, the early mission focused on medical and educational ministries to introduce evangelism and church planting. In 1970 the number of missionaries had grown to 15 couples and 11 singles. The number tapered off in 2005 to four couples and Osell, working in cooperation with Berhane Wongel Baptist Church Association. In all, more than 76 Converge missionaries served in Ethiopia.
De Cleenes join Converge International Ministries staff John and Lori De Cleene, former Converge missionaries to the Philippines, began their new full-time Mobilization role with Converge International Ministries June 15. As monthly deployment advisors, they apply their 30 years of frontline missionary service to missionary candidates. They are providing personalized monthly guidance during each appointee’s 12-18-month deployment period, assisting them until they are fully funded and deployed.
EDITOR CHANGE Thank you, Bob! Bob Putman, who spent the past 34 years and nine months with Converge, retired as director of Communications and Point editor August 31. Putman wrote hundreds of articles, edited more than 30 books and produced newsletters, brochures, catalogs, displays, relief appeals, scripts and more for Converge ministries. For three-and-a-half decades, he has helped shape communications to assist Converge staff members, pastors and lay people as they follow God’s command to go and make disciples of all nations. Thank you, Bob, for your faithful service to the Lord and to Converge.
MORE ONLINE New books from Converge authors Check out these new books from Converge writers. Read summaries: cvrg.us/fall2017. The Edge: God’s Power Perfected in Weakness, by Dave & Joanne Beckwith
Welcome, Mickey Mickey Seward, new director of Communications and Point editor, began August 8. Seward brings two decades of professional communications experience to Converge. Previously he served as Communications director of Mobberly Baptist Church, Longview, Texas, and was national director of Communications for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He and his wife Kristie have two children, a girl, Kendall (9), and a boy, Gibson (7).
22 POINT // FALL 2017
Let’s Meet God: Answering Common Questions Concerning Christianity, by Christopher Hearn
EVENTS
22 participate in Church Planting Assessment Center
7 assessed for missionary service
Twenty-two candidates from seven Converge districts participated in a Church Planting Assessment Center June 6-9 in Denver, Colorado. Candidates were evaluated for their readiness and fit to lead a launch team for a new church or for other ministry roles. In addition to candidates from Southeast, Southwest, PacWest, North Central, Rocky Mountain, Northwest and MidAmerica districts, four candidates represented non-Converge organizations. Five candidates were recommended to proceed and 15 to meet several conditions before they move forward. As we went to press, Converge MidAtlantic district hosted a CP Assessment Center in Barnegat, New Jersey, August 22-25.
Three couples and one individual participated in a Missionary Assessment Center July 24-27 at the Converge Orlando office. Assessors evaluated the candidates in 15 areas, including ministry style, cross-cultural aptitude, emotional health screening, teamwork, one-on-one interviews, presentations and more.
Unengaged. Unreached. She lives among a people group with no known believers and no one working to establish Christ’s church. We can’t keep them waiting. Send a missionary. Support a missionary. Become a missionary. START. STRENGTHEN. SEND. 23 Answer the call at converge.org/send.
Baptist General Conference 2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd. Arlington Heights, IL 60005
CONVERGE
R E A C H ACROSS THE STREET & AROUND THE WORLD
When we reach across the street and around the world with the gospel, we impact lives for eternity. It’s a both/and proposition. Attend the Converge Reach Conference to learn effective strategies to extend your church’s reach into your community and around the world. Great speakers, dynamic breakouts, compelling stories. You need to be there. J U N E 2 7 – 2 9, 2 01 8 // I N D I A N A R E G I ST E R @ C O N V E R G E . O R G / R E AC H - C O N F E R E N C E 24 POINT // FALL 2017