Video: Kaye Family in Africa

Here is a general overview from Tricia and I about our work in Africa. Thank you for your partnership!!

"American Evangelism" of Muslims

A friend of mine shared an article with me. It stunned me. I want to share an excerpt with you. If you want to read the whole thing, do so HERE. These are the sentiments of a Palestinian Arab Christian in the West Bank. What is most stunning is at the end....

“Why, he asked, has the church abandoned us Christians here in the Middle East? We are deserted, forgotten by the church of the whole world. Why do the Christians in America support the Zionists instead of supporting us, their brothers and sisters in Christ? I do not understand. They do not even notice us… We are caught between the Israelis and the Muslims. The Muslims see western Christendom as behind Israel. They see Israel as an outpost of the West- of the Christian West. They want no part of it…. We are willing to become martyrs if that is demanded of us. We shall remain faithful. But you are forcing us become unworthy martyrs, martyrs in an unworthy cause.

… A few years back 12 percent of the Palestinians were Christians. Now only 6 per cent are. We are constantly shrinking, constantly getting smaller. They are being forced out of Israel by Zionist policies. Israel is destroying the church in Palestine. The old ones have their homes taken from them by the Israelis, confiscated. The young ones, seeing no future, leave- for the United States, for South America, anywhere. Why do you Christians in America support the Zionists, when the Zionists are destroying the church in Palestine? Why do you not support your brothers and sisters in Christ?

And now I am told that conservative Christian groups in the United States are planning to start a radio station aimed at the Muslims. Why do you not speak to us first about such things? Why do you act as if there are no Christians here? We have lived with the Muslims for thousands of years. Why do you not first ask us our advice? You say that we have not been successful in evangelizing the Muslims. What do all your Western missionaries have to show for their efforts? I tell you, this will only make the Muslims more nervous, more suspicious, more fanatic. Our oppression will become worse. You will cause Christianity to disappear from the Middle East unless you stop this ‘American evangelism’- and unless your government settles the Palestinian problem.”

[From “An Evening in Amman”, The Reformed Journal, July 1982]

Did you see the date? 1982!!!!  What has changed? Perhaps things are only worse! God help us.

From Communism to the Hood

I received this message the other day. It deeply encouraged me. And it reminded me that there are disciple makers at work more than we see... (I've removed name and country to protect the identity of the lady that sent me this- and share what I do with her blessing.)

"I see you've been hanging out with sinners too...My friends are deep hood folk, dancers, drunks, and drug addicts. They look to me as a white girl with flavor. Someone said I'm moving the mountains in the hood. I don't drink, don't smoke, and I keep my clothes on, but they like what I have to say... I break it down! I am just a Sister on a mission...and God is up to something good! They know I am church-going. But they don't see what I see. They don't see their purpose and calling. And sadly most of these men and women have never touched a white person in their lives. And here I am-- a communist raised woman from _________ - touching their souls. God is really up to something!!"

Generosity, Faithfulness & A Farewell

You can say what you want about Americans, but let me tell you one thing I deeply appreciate about this place and these people...they are radically generous!! And you can say what you want about God, but let me tell you one thing I know about Him...he is unbelievably faithful.

We came on this trip with three goals:

1. Strengthen Ministry Partnerships (check) 2. Strengthen Personal Partnerships (check) 3. Fundraising! (One time gifts, continued monthly donors, increasing monthly donors and new monthly donors.) (check)

Our need was to raise $25,000 in three weeks. This would allow us to stay on the field the rest of this term.

We raised....

Drumroll please....

Over $25,000!!!!

AND more is committed.

AND we gained a number of new long term partners.

AND a whole lot more amazing stuff happened.

I just wanted to post a blog before leaving let you know that GOD DID IT!

And farewell. Thanks to all of you who filled Davis and my heart with love and our bags with goodies for the girls.

Headed to Lancaster & Pittsburgh

Do you live in Pennsylvania near Lancaster or Pittsburgh?

If so, I would love to see you.

Let me invite you to two events....maybe one works for you:

1. This Saturday, June 2nd I will be leading an all day training event about the counterintuitive values of disciple making and church planting that we are seeing fruit with in Africa and around the world. Let me say it this way: if you want to rethink how you make disciples and see churches multiply, COME! It is this Saturday from 9am until 3pm. Location: Vision Columbia located at 291 South 4th Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania.
2. Then on this Sunday, June 3 I will be preaching in the Pittsburgh area at around 10am. Then, leading a round table discussion on simple church values at 2pm. Come! I would LOVE to see you at either event! Location: Crossway Community Church located at 109 Davis Road in Valencia, Pennsylvania

Two Awkward, But Urgent Questions

As I have yearned more and more for discipleship, I have learned more and more about it. And I have taught it and shared it every chance I get. After many conversations about discipleship, I have discovered two very, very awkward questions.  They are awkward because people squirm and do not know how to answer them.  But they are vital questions....urgent even. They can make or break your faith journey. These two questions are extremely serious. They indicate whether you are living obediently to Jesus's mission. Here they are:

1. Who is discipling you?
2. Who are you discipling?

That's it. I know, I know. You were expecting something a little more crazy.

Well, here is a challenge for you. Start asking people these two questions. And watch what happens. Watch how few people can answer you.

25 Tips for Small Groups

The other day I was asked to speak to a group of Small Group Leaders. I offered them 20 tidbits of advice that flowed out of what we have learned in the last year and a half. I thought I would share them with you too:

1. Meet as often as possible. Infrequent meetings produce snail pace discipleship.
2. Bring people far from God. Your small group should reach lost people.
3. Everyone talks. No few dominate.
4. No few dominate. Everyone talks.
5. Including you. If you lead, shut up a lot more! Silence invites depth.
6. Stay in the Bible.
7. Pick 1-10 verses. Read the verses twice. Once for the head. Once for the heart.
8. Stay in the Word.
9. Everyone shares what they hear from the Lord in the scripture.
10. Stay in the Scriptures.
11. Do not allow people to leave the text you are on. Stay in one place. Listen to God there. Bible jumping causes deep insecurity in new Jesus Followers.
12. Draw people out. You will need to invite and wait.
13. Bring people far from God.
14. Point everyone into one on one discipling relationships.
15. Stop marketing Small Group in your Sunday Service to among saved people.
16. Invite people to join you that are far from God.
17. Ask loud people to take a risk and talk less.
18. Ask quiet people to take a risk and talk more.
19. Point people back to the bible, especially when they say crazy things. Ask them to show you where what they said is stated in the text you read.
20. Drop the DVD studies and pick up the Bible! You will never need another DVD study again. (Unless you hear God to use one.)
21. Look for leaders- train and launch them to start a new group.
22. Keep what you do every time you gather simple and the same so it can be reproduced.
23. If your group is all Christians, please invite and bring people far from God.
24. Oh, and reproduce.
25. Oh, and stay in the Bible.

Don't Flatter Yourself

This morning, the Lord helped solidify something in my heart that I feel compelled to share with you. Many of us are Christ followers who are a part of a church or ministry that is doing great things for God and impacting people. Awesome. And we ought to be excited about our role in the Kingdom. So neat that we get to participate in making God's dreams come true on earth.

However....

And a BIG however...

We must not get too impressed with ourselves! 

A number of exchanges that I have had in the last week have led me to believe that too many people (including me) are too impressed with themselves, their church and it's work.  They are so impressed that they don't listen...they only wait to talk again and tell you the amazing thing their church is doing. And then I think..."really?!?!"

The harvest is too great to flatter ourselves, guys! There are too many people that don't love and obey Jesus yet to start getting impressed with ourselves or each other.

I cannot fathom how one can feel they have arrived because they "broke the 200 barrier" or the 2,000 barrier or the 200,000 barrier for that matter! Who cares if there are 500,000 people in your church! Should you stop there and take credit?

So, I will be the first to work on this. I am not impressed with what we are doing in Africa. No matter how many leaders we are training and launching, it is not enough! I will be careful to tell stories this well make it seem that we have arrived. We have not.

And I invite you to be next. Get unimpressed. Get agitated. And stop flattering yourself. 

And I think that we can do this...and still celebrate every life and win. How do we find the balance?

Thoughts?

Since Arriving in America...

Since arriving in America...

• I am over jet lag. Took 2 days.
• I am carrying more faith in God's provision than I have in a long time.
• I am thankful for my family in ways I cannot express.
• I realize the depth of relationships that we had formed with friends in our life and church in our last season of life and ministry. I LOVE these people. A lot.
• I feel like I am forgetting to call or reach out to important people. So they better reach out to me. ;-)
• I am sad at some of what I hear and see around me. In the culture. And in the Christians. But I do not blame them. And I need to have grace, not judgement.
• I am EXTREMELY excited each day about the next person I get to see and hug.
• I am impressed with my son's emotional fortitude. Yet concerned about his little heart. This is a lot to take in. And he feels so confused when people act like he should remember them.
• I am thrilled for the honor to speak to and influence Pastors, starting tomorrow.
• I am trusting God for $25,000 in gifts!
• I am trusting God for ALL of our current financial partners to remain with us and even increase.
• And I am trusting God for new financial partners.
• And I believe in Faith that he will do it.
• Because since arriving here, I am more sure than I was before, that we are right where we are supposed to be.

Flying to USA Tomorrow

After a GREAT, fruit bearing trip to Kenya for our EMM retreat, we settled back in, did the laundry and got packed again. Had a great Mother's Day today with the girls and have now printed our boarding passes to leave tomorrow. Davis and I take off tomorrow at 1:50pm local time. We are so excited, though sad to leave the girls behind!

Davis and I will be in the USA from May 15 through June 4. The schedule is already quite full with some great things. But there is room for more time...perhaps with you.

The three goals of this trip are: 1. Strengthened Ministry Partnerships 2. Strengthened Personal Partnerships 3. Fundraising! (One time gifts, continued monthly donors, increasing monthly donors and new monthly donors.)

HERE is a post with where I will be sharing and when. Come. I would love to see you!

And HERE is a post with a tad more detail on some teaching events I will be leading for Pastors and Church Leaders. Come. I would love to see you.

Finally, if you are local in the DC area, PLEASE consider this your invitation to join Davis and I at Capital Christian Fellowship in Lanham on Sunday, May 20 for service at 10am or Friday, May 25 for a BBQ and sharing about our work at 6:30pm.

Love, The Kaye Family (especially the hunks in the photo above)

10 Characteristics of Church Planting Movements

Few things get me more excited than the hope and thrill of major, massive movements toward Jesus on earth. And over the last number of years, there has been unprecedented fruit in the world through what have been called "church planting movements". A basic common definition of a church planting movement by most missiologists would be:

"A rapid and multiplicative increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment."

David Watson defines it even further HERE. He says that:

A Church Planting Movement is an indigenously led Gospel Planting and obedience-based discipleship process that has resulted in a minimum of 100 new locally initiated and led churches, three generations deep, within two years. There is trained leadership in each church, and each leader relates to a mentor. Every-Member obedience-based discipleship that leads to ministry in the community is the norm for all new Believers and leaders. The outsider who may have initiated/catalyzed the process is not considered the first generation. The outside leader may maintain a mentoring relationship with the growing leadership of the movement.

This definition includes leadership, discipleship, ministry, breadth, depth, and time. Less than 100 churches, regardless of generations, do not constitute a CPM. More than 100 churches, but not at least 3 generations deep, is not a CPM. It has to happen within two years or it does not qualify. The two years can count from the initiation of the work, or count back from a given point in time. If counting back, 3 new generations must be demonstrated. If the work is not locally initiated, locally led, and obedience-based, and ministry-producing it is not a CPM.

According to significant global missions leaders who are responsible for some of this stuff (and who I have had the privilege of meeting this year), there are approximately 120 verified church planting movements on earth today: 35 in China, 35 in India, 25 in East Africa and 25 in West Africa. These movements represent millions of simple, Biblical churches.

Finally, I have referenced several CPM characteristic lists and came up with my own compilation. Following are 10 key characteristics to church planting movements:

1. Crazy fervent prayer
2. Passionate, fearless and abundant gospel sowing
3. Scriptural authority through Self-Discovery and community Bible discernment.
4. Led by Local leaders, not outsiders. Authority is decentralized making it difficult to identify a "top leader." (this ensures Jesus the glory more easily)
5. Radical Obedience-Based Discipleship focus.
6. Size is small and structure is simple churches (and among natural communities)
7. Churches plant churches intentionally (in their DNA from start) and quickly (1-6 months max).
8. Passionate and creative worship in the heart language.
9. Rapid, fairly chaotic growth that is often uncountable.
10. Suffering and sacrifice for the sake of the gospel.

If you are interested, here is a video  on CPMs that you may appreciate: Click here. 

If I Were Starting My Ministry Again

Over the weekend, one of our EMM leaders gave me this little book called "If I were starting my ministry again."  It is written by a seasoned Mennonite writer and leader named John Drescher. It was so impressed at the way that this man oozes wisdom. In 100 pages, he cranked out proverbial knowledge like water flowing from a hose. He spits tweets as he writes! (I reckon that is an odd way to refer to an older Mennonite man.) ;-)

Here are a some of the statements of great wisdom that I thought were worth sharing:

• The word that I am trying to impart must first become flesh in me.
• The flesh still feels that it can through training, education, gifts, hard work, and other personal qualities do a spiritual work. Jesus says we cannot. We will attend seminar after seminar to sharpen our skills but spend little time in solitude in prayer to have God shape our wills.
• We should be committed to reading God's word each day before we read anything else. And we should be committed to talking with God each day before we talk with anyone else. People that we are ministering to our able to sense if we know Jesus personally and if we came from his presence.
• Pastors should ask their churches whether they want their feet or their heads. We cannot give you both. If you want my feet to do all the chores and run all the errands and attend all the committees, then you should not expect him to preach sermons or teach the Bible with any depth.
• There is a major difference between teaching people the effects of the Gospel and teaching the gospel itself.
• Most of us are too strong for God to use us. As long as we feel that we can do a spiritual or eternal work ourselves the Lord will let us keep trying... but the result will only be human.
• If you have to be reasoned into Christianity, some wise fellow can reason you out of it!  But when the Holy Spirit brings inner illumination, no one can reason you out of it.
• I would never wish to be judged by my worst moments, neither should I judge the church or any member by its worst performers.
• Until congregations allow pastors to spend their time on training the spiritually well minority rather than serving the unmotivated and disobedient majority, people will not live and serve as Christ intends.
• If my prayer life sags, my whole life sags with it. If my prayer life goes up my life as a whole goes up with it. To fail here is to fail all down the line; to succeed here is to succeed everywhere. Whenever there is a crisis in the church, it is always first a crisis of prayer
• My work is not to change people. I am to love people and to accept people. It is the Holy Spirit's work to convince, convict, and convert.
• We can only grow in long-suffering when one tests how long we can suffer; so it is for all the fruit.
• No one is a sudden moral failure. Lust, like bitterness, is allowed to lodge in the heart and mind over time.
• We must never get off the train when we are going through the tunnel. There are plenty of discouragements in ministry, but it is not good to make a major decision during a time of discouragement.
• We must beware of letting complements build self-confidence in spiritual things. The compliments of others can be used for evil if we are not determined to give all glory to God. The more gifted the leader, the greater the temptation and thirst for praise.
• Our insistence in proving that we are right is nearly always an indication that there has been some point of disobedience.
• Do not take the adverse reaction of one person too seriously without checking such criticism with other trusted leaders who can advise with candor and love. I have suffered most in ministry for believing broad, sweeping criticism from one person who claim to be speaking for many, only to discover it was a very personal reaction, backed only by some personal prejudice or agenda, and not the opinion of others at all.
• I would avoid envy like the plague. Envy is to feel sad when another is glad. It raises its ugly head when someone succeeds in the area I work or in the area I seek to be successful.
• Pride and self-conceit is the sin we are most conscious of in others and which we are most blind to in ourselves.

I hope you enjoyed some of this depth as much as I did. I think you can but it HERE.

The Prodigal God

Last weekend I read the book "The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller. The book is about the parable of the lost son. I really, really liked it! It revolutionized my understanding of this parable and touched into some deep places of my heart. Most of the times I have heard this parable taught, the majority of the attention is placed on the wayward son to show us all about God's great forgiveness. Second to the young son, the Father would be most popular for welcoming the son back home after his great dishonoring adventure.

Not so with the perspective of this book. Keller says this story is mainly about the older son and the damaging heart disease of the older son. And its is exactly the "older sons" that Jesus was addressing when he told this story. Read Luke 15:1.

Here's the problem with the eldest son: He was not aware that he was doing anything wrong, so naturally, he had no need for returning to the Father in repentance. "Older Brothers" are impressed with all they do right, full of pride and unaware of the rejection and pain they cause the Father. Older brother syndrome is a deeply dangerous condition. And, if you have been serving the Lord for a long time, it might be possible that you are infected with it.

I highly recommend this book to you.

JDx. A Game Changer.

I love All Nations.  I probably do not give enough shout outs to the place we get the privilege of serving.  Sent by Eastern Mennonite Missions, we serve with All Nations in Cape Town with the legend, Floyd McClung and a host of other missional geniuses. Here is our website. All Nations runs a 5 month Church Planting School (CPx) that you have heard me share about before. It is life changing for those that experience it.  It was for Tricia and I. And the stuff taught in CPx is brilliantly biblical and radically fresh. CPx trains church planters for the nations with movements in mind and heart.

But here is the problem: Not everyone can or should come to Cape Town for 5 months. For financial, practical and missional reasons. I can say more about that later.

Which led us to an opportunity: Let's extract the best of the best values from the 5 month CP training and put it into a shorter, mobile, portable, teachable curriculum that can be taken anywhere by any of our staff.

And then, let's publish it, distribute it and give it away to the nations.

So we did just that!

I rallied a team together and drove them through a 4 month process of completing our first release of JDx; Jesus Discipleship Experience...7 Counterintuitive Values of Disciple Making and Church Planting. 

We released it to Staff April 15th. It is already being taught in 4 countries in 3 weeks.

JDx is already proving to be a game changer.  The curriculum can be taught in 1 day, 1 weekend, 1 week or 2 weeks. It can be adopted to any audience.  It can reprogram lifelong leaders or set new leaders in motion with proper DNA.

We are offering one in Cape Town July 7-14 that you can register for it HERE.

I am currently making plans personally to lead JDx's in a number of countries that I have been invited to bring this to already.

I anticipate that the JDx training will take off and fly many places. People want something fresh, something simple, something biblical, something faithful....and now we can take it and give it away...for the glory of the King.

African Friends & Money Matters

This week I am aiming to finish up a few books that I had half read. I often get halfway through a book, think I've got the gist and lay it down. The problem is that this clashes with my desire to finish that which I start. Plus I'll not review and blog about a book I have not read in full.

Anyway, today I completed the book "African Friends and Money Matters". I'm short, I'll say that this is a must, must, must read for any westerner serving in Africa. This book will save you money, energy, embarrassment and relationships. And above all, it will de-ignorant (like my new word?) you and help you to love Africans through understating them.

Make no mistake about it, there are major, major cultural differences between a westerner and an African. And some of the stuff in this book will shock you.

I will probably write a follow up blog to this one where I will list out some of the most costly cultural clashes.

Lily Broke Her Arm

All was well. Other than Tricia falling down the stairs at 3 this morning (and not hurting herself), we had a smooth trip from Cape Town to Joburg. Then there's Joburg! Where we had to ride a bus way out to the tarmac where our Nairobi-bound plane sat. Then we were sent back to the terminal. Then back to the plane again. Then back to the terminal again. Then back to the plane again. Yup, that was three trips if you were counting with me. All while standing. And all with zero communication from any South African Airways staff. We thought we were on candid camera. The third trip was most enjoyable because this was the one were Tricia lost her balance and fell INTO the stroller. Yes, picture Tricia sitting on Lily's lap and you're with me. Again, no injuries. Just a screaming baby, a shaken up family and scared onlookers- who then were kind enough to surrender a seat for Tricia and Lily.

Stay with me. It gets better.

Why three trips to the plane? A broken windshield on the plane. That's why. That would have been a bad day had they missed that one in the checklist. So, after being assigned a new aircraft, we took the bus back to the Tarmac and boarded. Perfect flight up the road to Nairobi. Short four hour flight.

After landing, disembarking, getting Visas for all four of us, and collecting our luggage, we were met by a man holding a sign for us. A nice taxi driver named John. A Nairobi native.

On our way to the Mennonite Guest House where we are staying, I hear Lily let out a painful scream- one we have never heard! I knew something had happened. Tricia was holding Lily in the back seat with our stroller standing between Davis and she (the only place for it as the small trunk held all our suitcases). Here is what happened: Tricia went to pick Lily up to reposition her and and didn't know that her little arm had been caught between the stroller parts and it badly injured her.

Here is what we know: she could not move her arm. She screamed worse when we touched it. If we lifted it, it was limp. It felt odd and out of shape. We waited a bit and decided that she had likely broken her arm and we better try to find a hospital. So, here we are, less than 60 minutes in Kenya, Lily's arm is broken and we are checking in at a very questionable medical facility. We were calm, but deeply concerned.

Then, before going back up to the counter to finalize registration and pre-payment, I felt God tell me to pray over her and trust him in faith. I obeyed. When I touched her body, I felt something go through me. I thought I may be feeling God. Or my emotions surging. Something.

I walked off and went back to the counter. Less than a minute later, Davis is pulling on my shirt demanding that I return to Mommy. Tricia didn't wait. She came to me trembling and said "Look, I can move her arm! Look, Noah!" I excused myself from the counter, took Lily over to a hospital cot lying near the counter and inspected her. I pulled and pushed and twisted her little arm. Again and again. She laid there smiling and laughing like it was play time. She was healed!!!! God healed Lily! I know He did. Tricia knows he did!!

I was overcome by the holy spirit as I went back to the counter to fetch my stuff and cancel the registration. I looked at the lady and said "Miss, I am sorry for the trouble. Please cancel everything. All I can tell you is that our daughter's arm was broken or badly injured when we arrived here. And I prayed for her and God healed her!"

And we departed, found our driver (who had our bags, seeing as how we had just left the airport) and went on our way.

Now we are at peace in our lovely room at the Mennonite Guest House, had a great dinner and even snagged a wifi signal for this update.

What a story.

What a God!

He heals! We saw it today with our own eyes.

Off to Kenya

Tricia, Davis, Lily and I leave at 5am tomorrow for Kenya. I have to admit....it is pretty neat to be headed to Kenya and it not be a very long flight. If I lived in the USA and were flying to Kenya in the morning, it would be a huge flight and a huge deal. But, we live only about 6 hours away from Nairobi by air. Pretty cool. We fly to Nairobi where we will join in with the Eastern Mennonite Missions Annual retreat. We were not able to attend our first year on the Field, so it is good to go this year. We will be at the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi for 3 days and on the coast in Mombasa for 4 days.  We are looking forward to the community of fellow workers and the dreaming we will do about collaboration for Jesus in Africa.

Pray that what we give and receive will be fruitful.

Will update if we can.

IntoAfrica; Glimpses of Heaven

All Nations has a team of wild, anointed explorers that are known as IntoAfrica. Late last year they took a three month voyage into Africa (hence the name) and explored many villages and tribes in search of where the gospel is not yet. They did this by land. Driving. From Cape Town. Craziness. These guys are inspiring. When you have a half hour, you want to watch this! These are our friends! We are so excited about what the Lord is doing through them. Let me know if you want to move here and do this and I can link you up with them. They have more of this on the books.

Glimpses of Heaven: Through East Africa from Bowen Parrish on Vimeo.

Discipleship Is Not For Christians

Discipleship is a great word-- it depicts follower-ship of Jesus.  As you know, I am down for that. However, it is a buzz word and I am afraid its meaning is getting twisted up a bit.  This past weekend, I was really inspired by a talk Steve Murrell gave.  Here is some of what he shared...

Discipleship was NEVER understood by the original disciples to mean "finding people already following Jesus and make them better at it". NO! It was clearly understood to mean "go out and find people that did not know Jesus and help them meet him and follow after him"!  Jesus was not telling the disciples to go make Disciples out of Christians when he delivered the Great Commission. (Though it seems like this is our main goal with all the "discipleship programs" churches have for their already saved attendees.)

The separation of the Siamese twins of evangelism and discipleship was one of the Greatest mistakes the church could make. Now, we get hands saved. Not hearts.

And finally, discipleship is about the basics. If you want to make disciples, you need to make peace with routine! There's nothing new here....

1. Engage lost People in love
2. Establish them in community
3. Equip them for ministry
4. Empower them to GO do the same with others

Basic.

Simple.

Incremental.

And incremental becomes exponential.

I left my church last Sunday!

My oh my oh my oh my how things in my life have changed in 16 months.  I feel like I have had a heart and mind transplant. 

All my life church had a Pastor or two that led the show. If and when they left, it was a big deal. Huge deal, even. Mass sadness.

2 years ago next week, I announced to a congregation I led and loved that I would be leaving them.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever done!

Then, I moved to Africa to learn what this simple church thing is all about.

I found out that a major value of simple church is to find people of peace (Luke 10) and have THEM gather and lead their peers and families. (often they are not even Christians---but they lead) And this is church, too.

Then, I learned this: the faster you leave them, the better. If you are not out of the way in less than three months (some say one month), the DNA gets watered down and the probability of the group ever making it without you is slim.  And it darn sure will not reproduce, because no one will want to leave the "main man". (Note: When I say leave, I do not mean that we leave relationship. You must stay in relationship and disciple the leader, but you do not attend the DBS or Church gathering.)

Exactly one year ago, me and my close friend, Viktor the German started a church with Mozambican men (they lead, but we still attend). Four weeks ago, we announced to them that we would be leaving them soon- a year after our journey started.

Last Sunday, we left them. It was their first meeting without us. They thrived! One of them sent me an SMS saying "It was unbelievable!"

Do I miss having front row seats to watching these guys grow in Jesus? You bet I do! But is this about me? No!

I want to see movements to Jesus, and that means I will need to get out of the way and let the locals lead and reproduce solid gospel DNA without outsider influence. And this is one of the sacrifices we must gladly make for the Kingdom!

Here is a tool we use that will help you...we call it MAWL:

1. Model- you do it.
2. Assist- they help you do it.
3. Watch- you watch them do it.
4. Leave- you leave them to do it.

(This is how you leave a church in 4 weeks. And this is happening all over the world!!)

So, I left my church this weekend.  I miss them, but I am excited for what is on the horizon for them.

Would you pray with me that this church reproduces within the next 2 months? That is our dream.