Gallup recently released a study on personal savings accounts in Africa.  The study showed that only a handful of people have personal bank account.  When you live from hand-to-mouth, it’s hard to think of saving for “rainy day.”  Only 2% of Malians have a personal bank account.  Sixty-six percent said they didn’t have one because they didn’t have enough money.

While we lived in Zambia (9% of Zambian have a personal bank account), the Barclay’s bank branch manager ran off with a lot of money he stole from the bank, left his family, and died of AIDS before they could catch up with him.  Just as we Americans have a hard time trusting banks these days, Africans have a hard time trusting what little they have to a bank front loaded with fees and service charges, only to have it stole.

See below the full article from Gallup…

Africa and Savings accounts

CHRISTIE STORM ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Areport urging Southern Baptists to re-energize efforts to spread the Gospel and plant churches will top the agenda at the denomination’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., next month.

The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report not only presses for a revival of evangelism in the face of declining baptisms but also outlines new responsibilities for the denomination’s missions organizations — the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board. It also calls for increased giving by all Southern Baptists.

Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church of Springdale and The Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, is the task force chairman.

He said he believes the recommendations, crafted after a year of discussion across the country, reflect the wishes of Southern Baptists.

“We believe we have our finger on the pulse of the vast majority of leaders and people in the Southern Baptist Convention,” he said. “But June will tell.”

With 16.1 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. But membership has dropped in recent years. The number of Baptisms climbed slightly from 2008 to 2009, but have dropped sharply in recent decades.

Bloggers and commentators have dissected the report and many have voiced opposition to the changes online and in Baptist publications across the country. Even leaders within the denomination, including Morris Chapman, president of the powerful executive committee, have expressed concern with portions of the report.

Others, however, support the recommendations and think the changes will streamline the denomination’s efforts to reach the world for Christ.

“I think the report is crucial and essential to the future of our denomination, because the structure our convention is operating under is a model that is antiquated,” said Jeff Crawford, pastor of Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Smith. “This report refocuses who we are and what the No. 1 focus of the church needs to be and that’s the Great Commission, taking the Gospel around the entire world.”

Crawford, 40, will attend his first convention annual meeting this year. In the past he hasn’t felt compelled to make the journey. This year is different.

“I find the Great Commission relevant,” he said. “I can get excited about the Great Commission and I think it will strike a chord with many other pastors as well.

“I think there’s a general consensus that we need to do something different. People can get nervous about what that means but I think everybody realizes we can do better and we need to do better.”

Crawford’s hope is that the report will unite convention members under one common goal — sharing the Gospel. He said the very relevance of the denomination is at stake.

“We can’t afford to be irrelevant,” he said. “We need to send a message that the denomination can be relevant and the right way is to make sure we are centered on the Great Commission.”

Thousands of delegates, called messengers, will gather June 15-16 in Orlando to consider numerous resolutions, elect a president and other officers and hear from the task force.

Floyd said as the 23 task force members met with Southern Baptists during the past year they found most are concerned about how the denomination of autonomous churches can pull together to reach the world for Christ.

“This is a very complex ministry that has to work really hard at cooperating with one another,” Floyd said. “This is about how we can do it better.”

In all, seven recommendations will be presented by the task force, including one to phase out the so-called cooperative agreements between the North American Mission Board and state conventions in seven years and establish a new strategy for partnership. That would mean state Baptist conventions will no longer receive funds for in-state missionaries and church planting efforts from the national mission organization. In Arkansas, that amounts to a loss of about $500,000, according to Arkansas Baptist News.

The Missouri Baptist Convention stands to lose even more — almost $2 million — and the executive board has expressed concern about several other aspects of the report. The group’s executive director, David Tolliver, will attempt to make a motion at the annual meeting to delay action on the report to give the entities involved time to study the impact of the proposed changes.

FINANCIALLY SPLIT

While Southern Baptists are generally united in wanting higher membership and more baptisms, they’re divided over how to split the money.

“We need to take some time to study the ramifications of their recommendations. I may be for every one of them once I fully understand what it will mean to Southern Baptists,” Tolliver said.

Tolliver will be one of many messengers attempting motions on various topics. He said there’s no guarantee he’ll even be acknowledged, but he’ll make the attempt.

Tolliver said he’s concerned about several components in the report, including a section proposing a new category of designated giving — Great Commission giving — which he believes will hurt the denomination’s Cooperative Program. Since 1925, the Cooperative Program has helped unite Southern Baptists in a spirit of cooperation. Local churches contribute to the Cooperative Program and state conventions fund their ministries with a percentage of the money and forward the rest to the executive committee to be disbursed among the various denomination entities.

As for the cooperative agreements, Tolliver said the report leaves the future of funding unclear.

“But if Southern Baptists decide to dissolve those agreements, I, frankly, will do that and we’ll begin to adjust,” Tolliver said. “We’ll live with whatever Southern Baptists want us to do.”

Floyd said the recommendations concerning cooperative agreements are an attempt to utilize the North American Mission Board more effectively. The proposal calls for “refocusing” the board by making church planting in North America the top priority. He said that requires moving funds.

“We need to move as much money as we can out of the South and into areas where Christianity isn’t known,” Floyd said.

Mike McDaniel, pastor of Grace Point Church in Bentonville, hasn’t attended an annual meeting in several years but is making the trek to Orlando this year. His congregation is similar to many others — it affiliates with the Southern Baptist Convention but also with other entities, including the Willow Creek Association, and supports them financially. The majority of the congregation’s contributions go to the convention. McDaniel calls these congregations neo-Baptists, those who no longer place the same value on aligning themselves with a denomination.

“Denominations are shrinking,” he said. “They are relics of modernism and we are in a postmodern culture … where we are anti-institutional.”

McDaniel sees the restructuring of the convention as an attempt to stabilize the denomination but he’s not sure the changes will foster a sense of cooperation, especially with the dissolution of the cooperative agreements.

“My conclusion is that it will create a competitive spirit,” he said. “It’s a fight for a bigger piece of a shrinking pie.”

WORLDWIDE REACH

McDaniel said changes to the Cooperative Program are needed because the current system is not efficient if the goal is to reach the world with the Gospel. Most state conventions keep more than 60 percent of their cooperative giving funds in state. He thinks the majority of funds should leave Arkansas.

“There needs to be prioritization on evangelizing the unreached peoples of the world,” McDaniel said. “If 60 cents of every dollar never left the state, did we really believe in global missions or did we believe in Arkansas missions?”

Ultimately, McDaniel said the denomination’s pace of change could be too slow for many churches.

“I’m afraid the more progressive churches loyal to good, sound Baptist doctrine aren’t waiting around for the slow giant to wake up and change,” he said. “They are moving on.

“People in our church aren’t waiting for the IMB and other SBC organizations to change and catch up with the times. They are getting seminary degrees … going on missions with pioneers. They are ready to go and they are not going to wait around five more years or so until the denomination can finally get going in the right direction.”

As for Floyd, he encourages Southern Baptists to read the report. It’s online at pray4gcr.com.

“Southern Baptists are very concerned about the future but the problem is they are not sure how to get there,” he said. “We need to build a compelling vision that rallies them to a better future. … We need to create a climate where change is acceptable.”

We are in the process of launching  another GPC worship gathering in mid-town/lake area of Rogers.  We will share the one name, leadership, budget, vision and message as a unified body bringing our hearts together with those of Bentonville and Rogers.  I started with a list of reasons for a multi-site launch last week; but had too many reasons and needed to break it into two entries.

10 reasons why we are launching a missional 2nd GPC site (continued)
6. Multi-stie churches remove the limits of a 4-walled-church to see the church as community. The church’s walls aren’t limited to one building or address.  The church is a community, so the church should be a part of the community and not be defined by what goes on within 4 walls.  For the first five years of GPC existence, we were a portable church.  Many of our children knew the church was the community of people and not the building.  This is a more biblical idea of a church.  We are going back as we move forward.
7. Multi-site churches are  catalyst for 3-self church planting, not a hindrance.  One of my biggest push backs to multi-site was how I thought it would hinder 3 -self church planting.  Studies have confirmed that the multi site churches are more likely to plant churches than single campus churches.  84% of churches with multiple campuses have also planted  churches; only 74% of single campus churches have helped to sponsor another church plant (Viral Church, Stetzer).
8. Multi-site churches take a jack hammer to a mega church. Multi-site churches function as a smaller community so they can be nimble and be responsive to culture and people around them rather than be a huge massive institution that can’t adjust to change.  However, with the close affiliation between campuses it keeps the breadth of resources, talents, and depth of a larger church accessible to both.  In my doctoral research, I did a case study of Mosaic and their 9 campuses in the Los Angeles region.  Their pastor, Erwin McManus, said to me: “Mega churches don’t require empowering lay people.  They require a system that standardizes so that fewer people have to do everything in the decision-making process.” Multi-site churches, however, help the whole body of Christ to function and exercise their gifts.
9. Multi-sites enable people to go and plant churches while staying connected to the church they love. This will afford more members who feel a call to go and help plant a church to take a baby step, by leaving GPC Bentonville and going to GPC Rogers; yet, never having to leave their GPC family.  It is an in-between step to starting 3-self churches.  We need 15-20 families with a church planter’s heart that are ready to go and serve and worship on Saturday nights and labor to start a new campus with GPC’s heart and soul.
10. Mult-site churches enable different groups of worshipers in multiple communities to network and experience fellowship together. It is sad to say, but many times there is a disconnect between churches. Multi-site churches build a system of unity and working together, serving together as we serve one another, and serve our Lord.  It expands God’s community under one common heart and voice of the people, even if they are separated by miles.

Choosing the right campus pastor to serve in this strategic position is paramount to the over all success of the campus.  Pete Finfrock is an amazing young man who we have been “grooming” for this position. He is graduate of Ecclesia Bible College and he and his wife Emily live in Rogers.  Emily is a teacher. They have been a part of GPC since our years in Bentonville High School.  They share a common vision for the city of Rogers and know they will lead and care for the people well.  Hear Pete preach Sunday May 16th at GPC, as we move forward as a church to be on mission in Rogers.

GPC has recognized some of the hunger issues of the world.   Our people have given generously and are intending to help fight against the global hunger needs.  We are particularly focusing our attention on the severe malnutrition in Mali, West Africa.  We are in partnership with SILAH-Mali (NGO humanitarian organization in Mali) and MANA a manufacture of “Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods” (RUTF) to help alleviate the growing malnutrition needs of a nation where 38% of Malian children are chronically malnourished.  One of our SILAH Mali reps who sees the malnutrition daily, wrote me an email detailing an account of increased malnutrition and it’s affects that are comparable to the holocaust  and the hunger suffering that was endured during World War II.

Read the account below and visualize the tragedy of the holocaust and the modern day tragedy of hunger today.

Here is an article that is worth reading if you are a Beyond Borders thinker like myself.  Eric Swanson, of Leadership Network (and outstanding para-church thinking, equipping and catalyst organization) had this article in their recent Network Advance. It is a great help for seeing the mission effects of when churches become missional.  When churches go on mission with God, the way we look at the world, the mission of God, and our mission in life is effected.  Read and be blessed.

1) Mutuality- The future of missions will be shaped by mutuality between East and West, North and South, sending and receiving nations. Because there are now vibrant believers and thriving churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eurasia, and even the Middle East, we in the West shouldn’t think of ourselves as the saving force in world missions. Churches worldwide are learning to come together.

3) Investing in leaders -Leadership is everything. Wherever good things are happening, a capable and passionate man or woman will be leading the way. Churches that are effective overseas have learned to leverage the passion of local leaders. How do you recognize good leaders who will make great partners? The most obvious sign is they are already engaged in effective ministry without any outside help.

says that even in the toughest of countries they don’t leave Jesus at the immigration booth. Jonathan told me, “When we are asked if we intend to proselytize people through our service we tell them, ‘We’re here to make Jesus known and Jesus gets known through his followers doing good’–as opposed to, ‘We are not here to get followers of Jesus.’ So far, that has worked for us.”

5) Greater financial accountability-Churches that effectively engage in global ministry are thinking differently about who, what and how they support missional engagement. The days of cutting a check and hoping for the best are rapidly disappearing. With all the needs and opportunities in the world, global missions leaders of the future are working to maximize every dollar expended on global outreach. Effective missional churches of the future support mission-critical projects that their global partners deem important. This type of giving can only come from a trusted relationship. Churches are learning never to start initiatives that will require western dollars to continue.

6) Business as mission-An emerging funding model ties business and mission together. This is more than missionaries posing as businesspeople but rather missional entrepreneurs who are starting businesses and creating jobs in the countries in which they serve.

7) Focus-There is a power in focus. On the flipside, the most frustrated pastors I interviewed were those whose churches supported scores of scattered legacy missionaries who were serving all over the map. Much of the time, these missionaries were not home-grown but rather nephews of former staff, or friends of friends, or a missionary tied to a designated gift. The often unstated missions goal was to place representatives from the church on every continent of the globe. Churches today are learning to do better by focusing on fewer places of engagement.

Technology -With every breakthrough in communication technology, there have been innovators who have exploited that technology to advance the gospel. The printing press, radio, TV, and the Internet have allowed the church to increasingly enter a world without boundaries. All around us are glimpses of churches that are discovering the power of today’s newest technology–to impact a country without ever physically visiting that country. Tech-savvy mission leaders are shrinking the world with technology.

i. William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003 Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson. Accessed June 20, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

Playing For Change: Song Around the World “Stand By Me” from Playing For Change on Vimeo.

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I embrace, with humility, my own fallen human nature and my proclivity to fall again and again into sin and stupidity. I would love it if I could live in relationship with people who truly, genuinely want to see and bring the best out in me.  I hope that I too can speak into and invest my life in people in such a way that I too draw out the best in others.  It was Paul’s metaphor of childbirth when he speaks of “Christ being formed in you” (Gal 4:19) that gave me a clearer picture of the maturation process we must go through.  “Forming” is a process, it is becoming.  Is Christ becoming more and more my form?

Having people in my life who love me past my fallen state and loves me through the forming process is my picture of accountability.  Let this poem I shared in my February 21, 2010 message give you a visual of for the power and beauty of an accountability relationship.

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.

I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me.

I love you for the part of me you bring out.

I love you for putting your hand in my heaped up heart

and passing over all the foolish weak things that you can’t help dimly see in there

And drawing out into the light all the beautiful things no one else looks quite far enough to find.

I love you because you are helping to make out of the lumber of my life  not a tavern but a temple;

out of the works of my everyday not a reproach but a song                           -Lori Croft

In this Journey, it is important to know, and identify key points, stops, items you need for the journey.  For example, when I was a bush missionary in Zambia, I had a full page check list of everything I might need for my adventurous trips (2 extra tires, plenty of water, food, light, etc).  I wouldn’t leave the house unless every item on the list was checked off.  What’s on your spiritual check list for your spiritual journey.

In January we launched the series discussing Worship as a means of exploring deeper who God in and bringing pleasure to Him with our life.  This month, Community.  No one needs to travel alone.  We were not built to travel through life alone and neither is God alone.  God, Himself, loves community.  Here are a couple of facts about God and community to help launch us on this journey…

1. God is communal in His very core and nature – Genesis 1:26, points to the Trinity of God, when He said let “us” make …

2. Man was made for community.  When God made Adam, everything was perfect, life was perfect.  It was a utopia life, yet when God made man he said it wasn’t good for him to be alone (Gen 2:18).   You know the rest of the story.  He then made woman.

3.  God manifest Himself fully when we are living and acting in community with others.  Jesus promised His anointed presence when we come in community around for His names sake (Matt 18:20).

Don’t be the classic American individualist suffering from individualism.  Run to community, live in community, value community.

I want to first  join with the co-laborers from Grace Point Church (GPC) in praying  for the work and people of Haiti that GPC members have been investing their life in for the past 7 years.  Their labor has been faithful and sacrificial throughout these years.  In my estimate, we have commissioned 35 or more members from our church to serve in Haiti.  They have helped to build Joy House, prayed over the voodoo temple, and have started  the workings of a congregation.  Thank you, John and Kay Rodgers, for being the GPC champions of the Haitians.  We stand with you as you collect supplies and return to Haiti as soon as you can to rebuild the work and lives of the Haitians you love so much.  GPC stands with you financially and in prayer.  Learn more about GPC’s work in Haiti on their blog.

On a national scale, I am thankful for the North American Mission Board’s and the International Mission Board’s disaster relief efforts that they are  engaging throughout the nation.  No one feeds or serves the least of these better in the name of Christ and in times of crisis than Southern Baptists and their Disaster Relief units.   If you would like to give to a fund that 100% will go to helping Haiti survive this crisis, consider making monetary gifts to the SBC Disaster Relief.  There are a lot of people willing to take your money to “help” in Haiti.  I would like to think it will all get to the right place and do what you intend for a gift to do.  I think we have learned from Katrina, there are those who don’t share in the same level of financial accountability as other established relief organizations.  Consider the SBC Disaster Relief  a solid choice.  This is the fund my family will be giving our donations to.

Finally, I heard an inspiring story regarding a missionary who was on the ground capturing the story of Haitian children with Compassion International.  It is an amazing story regarding the  value of life and writing your last letter.  Watch the story and consider going on the Last letter website and typing your own last letter as you live beyond borders.  It may be a very healthy exercise for us all.

Click on this link for the video and be blessed

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34933049#34933049

You know the amazing thing with studying the Scriptures, you can read a text a 100 times and on the 101st time a verse or truth jump off the page and like some flashing LED lights on Time Square.  You want to ask, where have you been hiding all my life?  I had one of those LED light moments last week as I have been praying through my personal involvement in the Advent Conspiracy (worship fully, spend less, give more and love all) as a life style adjustment, not just a seasonable observance.  The verse that jumped off the page at me was Proverbs 19:17.  Though I had read the verse many times, this time my heart was more pliable.   Couple a more pliable heart with resent conversations about the malnutrition opportunities in West Africa I found the verse to be biblical confirmation that the McDaniel’s, and prayerfully GPC, would be a part of showing kindness to the poor and allow the Lord to “reward” us as the lender.  I figure God owns it all anyway, I must be willing to release what he has entrusted to me if someone else needs my resources more than I do.

“Mark,” a field representative we support through our church Global Mission Offerings, called me recently from Mali and told me of an opportunity to help be a solution to a horrific hunger problem in the country.  He told me that 38% of the children in Mali suffer from malnutrition.  The malnutrition problem is a major contributor to the fact that 25% of Malian children die before 5 years of age.  Mark spoke of going into a village and coming a across a one year old child who could hardly hold themselves up.  In the adjoining picture you see the mother holding the child steady for the photo.   At 1 year old the baby weighed 11 lbs.  Mark was able to get the child to a clinic where it was weighted and examined.  The clinicians classified the child as being in the top 3% of malnourished children in the world.  The clinic gave him some enriched peanut butter called “Pluppy Nut.”  However, pluppy nut is not readily available in Mali.  It must be imported it into the country which as you might imagine can make is cost prohibitive to developing countries for many.  GPC wants to do away with this hurdle or limitation.

It is our goal to dedicate 1/3 of Grace Points Churches Christmas offering this year to start a Pluppy Nut manufacturing plant in Mali.  It will be approximately a $20,000 investment into the country and the people of Mali that will have zero monetary return to us, but will give life, sustain life and enable many more children to have a chance to hear of the greatest love and gift of all.  This gift we celebrate this Christmas season, Jesus Christ.

See the video below and learn more about pluppy nut and the value it brings to life.