Only Three New Works in the ABA in Six Months?

It is becoming of some concern to me that so far only three new churches/missions have actually begun in the ABA (USA) since June of this year. Now, it is entirely possible that we haven't gotten all of the information about new works being started yet, but it doesn't look very good at the present. I know of a couple more works that may begin soon. If you know of a new work starting somewhere please let me know and we will get them registered on our website.

I was told by some that 100 was a realistic goal for our 1200 plus churches to achieve. But I'm not sure that this is realistic at all at the present pace. One of the reasons for this is that, to my knowledge, there has never been any tracking of new works nationally or globally; therefore how can we establish goals or challenge churches properly.

If everyone in the ABA knew how dismal our church planting record was perhaps there would be a change. Perhaps it's time to count more than just the number of souls that get saved everywhere and realize that it is the planting of new churches that creates the most evangelism.

Let's plant more churches!

David

Can Churches Comeback?

Yes, churches can comeback from the decline that many are experiencing.

Many have told me, I wish we could see our church growing again. Pastors tell me, I wish I knew what to do that would change the direction our church is headed for. Excuses are often used to justify the current decline like: "it's the last times", "the love of many is getting cold", "there is a great falling away taking place". However, it seems strange to me that if those excuses held any water they would be true everywhere. But it is not true everywhere. In fact, if it is true at all, it is true only to those whose environment suggests that it is true. The truth is that wherever churches are actively engaged in outreach and evangelism they are experiencing growth and development!

Becoming a comeback church requires a new commitment to evangelism. If churches are declining and dying it is because they have ceased in "reproduction". Therefore, begin reproducing churches, believers, and disciples. It is the solution to becoming a comeback church.

Those churches that are coming back are going back to evangelism and discipleship.

You can learn more about being a comeback church from "Comeback Churches" by Ed Stetzer.

David

A Call for Visionary Leadership

Visionary leadership is missing in our associated work. We often have vocal upheavals by 'would be' leaders but very little vision being cast. This is a call for visionary leadership.

I am still waiting to hear our visible assocational leaders challenge our churches to set goals and standards by which we might be able to plant more churches. It seems there is a real disconnect here. Why are our visible leaders reluctant to put out the challenges and set goals? Are they afraid to step over some invisible barrier that may or may not exist? Or do they feel that this is not in their 'job description'?

How simple (to my way of thinking) it would be to establish an exploratory committee on church planting and how to advance church planting in our associated work. Now why would this be so hard to do? Would it accomplish anything in the way of church planting? I don't know. But I would like to believe it would move church planting to the forefront of why we even exist.

Where is the visionary leadership to do this? Where are the visionaries?

David

Thanksgiving at Church

Alice and I attended church where our daughter and her husband went yesterday (Nov 25/07). It's called First Redeemer Church (an SBC church in N Atlanta).

The pastor is Dr. Richard Lee and he must be about 70. He started the church about 11 years ago with a very small group. Yesterday there were over a 1000 in attendance. There are a lot of churches around here (SBC churches) and yet this church continues to thrive. There was no doubt about an aggressive outreach and evangelistic mindset. The pastor was passionate about reaching people for Christ.

I was thankful to be in a church that loved souls and did something about it.
David

Thanksgiving and Beyond

My wife and I attended our Smith family reunion in Mississippi this Thanksgiving. There were nearly 50 of us! From just four brothers; our sister wasn't able to make it.

It is so very special to see how God blesses a family that puts Christ in the forefront of their existence. I praise God for over 400 years of Christ following in my family. It all began in the 1500's with our German Mennonite forefathers. Some migrated to Canada in the early 1900's and others stayed and suffered a lot due to communism and nazism. Some of us moved to the USA and here I am with my family.

Our prayer every year is that every new grandchild and nephew and niece come to Christ.
David

What to Do about What to Do?

At least an attempt was made to address the issues that weigh heavily on the hearts of a lot of God's people. I believe Don Britton made an honest attempt at offering some solutions for 'what to do' about 'what to do'. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about uprooting the ingrained traditionalism that has taken over our associations and the way in which we 'do church' as well. Our associations reflect the nature and personality of our churches. And until one or the other changes we will forever wonder about what to do about what to do.

It is time for us:
1. To start planting more churches and not wait for associations to do it for us.
2. To start a revolution of following Christ and changing the world around us.
3. To start start a church planting movement by firing up churches to start planting churches that will plant churches, that will plant churches, ...
4. To start new associations for one purpose only! Church planting.

Some may not like what I have said. But they had better wake up or it will be too late.

David

Two Steps Forward and Three Steps Back

Sometimes we are absolutely our own worst enemies. Instead of helping ourelves we shoot ourselves in the foot. That is exactly what I believe happened at the Missionary Baptist Association of Texas in Hillsboro on Wednesday November 15th.

In fact, I believe we shot ourselves in both feet. Although the vote was 75-74 to put a proven missionary on salary, it sent a message loud and clear that at least half were generally isolated from the rest of the world and ignorant of church planting terminologies that embody everything we believe about the Great Commission. When the missionary declined to be put on salary after recognizing the division it was causing he displayed courage and Christian grace choking back his disappointment. What a great example of spiritual humility.

If this association is ever going to get past the last 40 years of mostly failed church planting and begin moving into the real world of reaching the 'next generation' they will have to make drastic changes in the way they do business. It is time to change for the good.

In order to undo what took place Wednesday it will take an act of God's intervention to change the hearts of those who have opposed themselves. What took place on Wednesday is the very same reason that several state associations no longer send out any missionaries/church planters at all in their state associations through the salaried program; the reason? Unbelievable criticism and denunciation against those who were advancing with vision for the kingdom of God. Those same churches and pastors no longer waste their time in meetings that produce only chaos and discouragment. That is where we are headed if something seriously constructive is not done to avert the coming fall-out.

Who will be bold enough to rise up with some solutions and take the bull by the horns for a change.

A New Name for the ABA?

It seems there is a lot of interest in changing the name of our association. Finding the right name might become the greater challenge. Enabling associations of other countries to fellowship alongside of the ABA would require, I believe, a name that embraces all of our bretheren internationally. We have had some interesting suggestions, but so far nothing stand out. Send your suggestions our way and let's see what kind of name best suits our entire associated work.
David

Para-church?

What is 'para-church'?

'Para' as I understand it means 'alongside of '. For many years longer than I have lived there have been ministries working alongside of churches for the propagation of the gosepel and Christian services. One of the main reasons that 'para-church' ministries were initiated was to compensate for the lack of local church vision and inititiative to do what she was commissioned to do in the first place. Although these ministries (outside of the ABA and some Independent Baptist churches) are not under the authority of a local New Testament church, they are however, accountable and responsible to boards of trustees who are usually accountable to local churches of their own affiliation.

The idea is that if local churches were not stepping up to the plate and initiating ministry to carry out the Great Commission then neither would those same churches be responsible in maintaining those ministries. Many a good ministry has been killed by well meaning local churches and individuals that didn't understand the ministry founder's vision. Therefore, maintaining a separate entity from the local church has often been better from a practical point of view.

Many new ministries have arisen in our own ABA fellowship. Most of them have started because there was a lack of vision and structure within the local churches as well as the associated work itself to initiate these ministries. These ministries, as long as they are accountable to local New Testament churches are not 'para-church' even though they are operated and controlled by a board of directors or trustees. As I understand it, many of our bible institutes and seminaries are operated in the same fashion. Are we going to call them 'para-church'? To be accountable to and under the sponsorship of a local church is one thing, but to be controlled by the same is another. When ministries are sponsored by local churches, both parties enter into an agreement. It is then a matter of abiding by the agreement by both parties.

XSTREAM is not 'para-church'. We are sponsored by Landmark MBC in Martinez, California. We work alongside of many churches and are accountable to our sending church. We have a great pastor and a great church.

David

Change is Happening

I was delighted to hear that two local associations in different states have already made significant changes in the matter of reading and giving of reports. Good change is always an encouragement to others to keep looking forward. Let's keep the ball rolling!

Much more change is needed for effective and productive associational meetings. But Praise God it has begun.

David

A Call for a New Name

Sometimes a new name can give you a new perspective. Saul's name was changed to Paul. It was a new life and a new perspective. Others viewed him differently. He was no longer the man who persecuted Christians, but became the man who preached the gospel to the gentiles.

Adding just one word to the name of our association would send a clear message as to our global vision; International. Many years ago one of our ABA presidents recommended with a resolution that our name be changed to 'ABA International', due to the growing number of churches in many new foreign countries being added to our fellowship and the importance of developing a global unity among us. It was soundly defeated on the messenger floor!

A name change would be good for us all. It will give us a sense of going forward. It will be encouraging to the hundreds of new churches globally to know that we have accepted them. It will clearly declare where we are going and who we want to become.

A new name would be a good thing.
David

Change Agents

Being a change agent is risky business. You never know when you have moved too fast or too far until you look back and notice that there is no one with you.

I will probably be guilty of moving too fast and too far for many of my brethren; but I am willing to take the risk for the sake of necessary change.

For too long we have all endured the reading of associational reports that somehow sound very similar to reports a year ago. During this time of the year many local associations are meeting and you can almost guarantee that the same thing will be done like it was last year and the year before. Believe it or not, some of the exact same reports will be repeated word for word from last year's minute book because there was not enough initiative on the part of someone to at least change a few words. Associational reports, in my opinion, are nothing more than a miserable reminder that there was nothing to report in the first place.

Just in case you are being severely offended by the above statements let me assure you that the giving of reports has its place. Simply place the written reports on the table for easy access to all the messengers so that they may choose or not choose to have a report. Then use the time normally given to the reading and discussing of reports to a meaningful seminar on church planting, pastoral needs, leadership development, encouragement and exhortation, and etc.

Would someone take the risk of proposing such a change? Here is my guess; most will be afraid to make such a change because historically we have always done it that way. How about someone making history and saying, 'enough is enough'. It maybe that your local association is not like that, if not, let me know about it. Maybe others would love to find out about it also.

What is really sad is that our national association is also filled with what seems endless reporting and duplicity using up much valuable time. It seems to me that the time invested by our missions committee at the ABA and other State associations is totally undone in subsequent sessions nearly every time. Either the missions committee recommendations need to be accepted as recommended or it (the committee) ought to be dismissed completely since what they have recommended is ignored most of the time anyways. One or the other, right?

It has been said, "Deal with things the way they are and not the way they ought to be"; I would like to add "...until you can change them to become what they ought to be." Let's be change agents.
David

100 New Churches?

I would love to hear from anyone that knows of someone that has started a new church or mission since the ABA meeting in June this year. Are you out there somewhere?

After having spoken to a few it is our opinion that 100 new churches/missions is not an unrealistic goal for our ABA churches.

If the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (about 500 churches) can plant over a hundred new churches in one year then the ABA could do even more since there are over 1500 churches in the whole association. Don't you think?

What will it take for us to catch this vision? Who will help cast the vision for this? Is there anyone? Or is mine the only voice?

David

Indigenous Church Planting USA

Ed Stetzer has coined it well, "Most church planters start the church in their head and not in their community." In other words, a lot of cp's (church planters) come into an area with preconceived ideas about things they have always wanted to try and find out it doesn't work. The reason for this is that the cp needs to contextualize himself. He will need to become culturally relevant in his target community.

Doing indigenous church planting in the USA is most essential in order to reach the people in any community. Our country is so diverse that you cannot use the same methods of church planting in California as you would in NY City or in East Texas as you would West Texas or in Miami as you would in Seattle. The cp will need to become incarnate to his community and then reach them. The cp will need to study his target group adequately and personally before he jumps in with all "fours''.

One of the reasons we have fewer churches being planted is that there are fewer men who
are willing to start churches in cultures other than white, middle-class, suburban communities. It seems that we are training men exclusively for that kind of ministry in our Bible Institutes and not entertaining cross cultural church planting as a valid exercise of church planting. To plant churches in the types of communities for which our men have been generally trained for is expensive and disheartening. People may not be as responsive as they are in other communities.

The belief that a beautiful church building will draw them in is false, unless your goal is to move Christians from one church to another church. "Build it and they will come" does not work effectively unless there is a greater vision in place than just building a building. Indigenous church planting does not consider the building as the end to a means but a means to an end.

Indigenous church planting works for our Foreign missonaries and will work here at home. Let's do it!

David

Faith Promise Blessings at Ranson WV

Bro Mike Withem and First Baptist Church of Ranson WV are an awesome example of what happens when a church and pastor get committed to the Great Commission.

I remember visiting Bro Mike's church many years ago when it was still a baby church. Alice and I were doing a church plant in Mississauga, Canada and were invited to come share our ministry with First Baptist. That's where I was really first introduced to faith promise and Bro Harold Williams. Not long after that we invited Bro Mike up to Mississauga to start us off on our first faith promise conference. Then the following year we invited Bro Harold. Our church in Canada was so blessed by this.

It would be so wonderful if more churches would have a faith promise missions conference. So many don't have a clue as to what they are missing. I'm sure some are wondering what it is all about. Let me just encourage everyone that is reading this blog to discover for themselves what a little more faith can do in the matter of giving for world missions. It will challenge your church and build a vision for mission beyond you're expectations.

To learn more about Faith Promise Missions Giving please visit our website and go to church planting then to Faith Promise.

David

What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ

I've recently been reading a book by Bro Andrew (author of: God's Smuggler) called Secret Believers. It is excellent. It's about true life stories of Muslims turning to Christ. Very inspiring and motivating. It definitely makes a good case for reaching out to Muslim people.

I would love to hear from those who are reaching Muslims. Is there anyone who is reading this blog out there witnessing to them? Do you have any neighbors that are Muslim? This is their Ramadan season. They fast all month long from daylight to dark (after dark and before dawn they will eat). This is a good time to ask them about their fasting and what it all means in order to open up a conversation. You can tell them about Isa, (Jesus), and they will listen. Just try it.

After you have read the book, give it to a Muslim. The book calls us "to join a new kind of jihad, leaving vengeance behind in favor of forgiveness, radical love, and unyielding prayer. "

David

Ministry Partners Needed

Some of you may already know that, by the grace of God, we will be attempting to start a multi-cultural church in the DFW area sometime around the first of the year. I am entering into this with much prayer and looking for God's guidance.

We already have a couple of potential ministry partners willing to join us. We are in need of several more. Please pray that God would bring us an African American family who would help us. We already have an hispanic pastor and his wife willing to join us. We are also looking for an Asian ministry family. Please pray for us in this. If you know of someone that loves children's ministry and would like to join our team please let us know. We also have a discipleship minister and a media minister who are seriously praying about joining us.

If you would like to have a part in this effort as a ministry partner please get in touch with us. If you would like to be a part of our giving team, please visit our Online Giving on our website and leave your love offering for our expenses.

Starting this new multi-cultural church is part of what XSTREAM is about. We are glocal in our vision. "Promoting a global church planting movement".

David

Online Giving Works, Try it!

I've noticed that there are many faithful readers of our blogs, and many more that visit our website. I am honored that so many would want to read my opinions and find out more about our ministry.

May I take advantage of you fine folks out there and ask you to visit our "Online Giving" section on the front page of our website? Would you just go ahead and click on that tab and see if it works? I mean, go ahead and put 20 dollars in there so that I can be really sure that it works? As far as I know it works, we tested it when we installed it, but we are patiently waiting for someone to try it. Our XSTREAM Global travel fund is in great need right now. I'm trying to dig out of a huge deficit. I am praying about going to Nepal in November and also helping in getting a couple of churches started. We need your 5,10,20,50 or 100 dollar offerings soon in order for us to go where God is leading us.

Our trips for opening new fields and church planting are often very productive. Unfortunately, what happens is, that when we make our plans and commitments to go to certain destinations I am consequently locked in to go. Over the last several years not enough funds have come in to cover my expenses. It has really added up and I feel that we must address this now or we won't be able to open the new fields that are out there.

We would love to make you a part of our XSTREAM Elite Group who would be willing to contribute a one time offering of $100 or more towards our travel expenses helping us to open new fields and planting reproducing churches.

Online giving works, will you try it?

David P Smith

Evangelism Doesn't Work Anymore

The idea for this blog is not originial with me, but it expresses my heartfelt opinion about evangelism today especially among our own churches, pastors and leaders.

Some may not hear what I am going to say, but those that have ears to hear, will!

It is obvious that evangelism is not working among hundreds of our pastors and churches because there are few, if any souls, coming to Christ and even fewer are being baptized every year. The minute books of dozens of our local associations prove that to be true; it is written in black and white, and undeniable. Evangelism is not working!

It is very possible that one of the main reasons that evangelism is not working anymore is that evangelism isn't being worked. It makes no difference what you do, if you don't put evangelism to work it won't work. That's why evangelism isn't working!

One reason that evangelism doesn't work is that some would prefer to extol the values of just quietly living their faith in such a way that others will want to find out more about their faith. Well, it sure sounds good, but that's not evangelism and it doesn't work very effectively either. Maybe that's why evangelism doesn't work according to some.

Or maybe evangelism doens't work because very few have experienced the immense satisfaction of personally leading a lost soul to Christ. Therefore very few will have seen dramatic life-changes occur in someone's life which would have been solid evidence of evangelism working. But evangelism isn't working or we would be seeing more life-change in a lot of people. Right?

If evangelism doesn't work anymore it's because you and me are not working it. That's why evangelism doesn't work anymore.

David

At 60!

I can't believe that on the 15th of this month (September) I will have reached the big 60. Some of you reading this blog have a ways to go before you reach that number, others may have passed me a long time ago.

So what has 60 years meant to me? More than I can tell. I received Christ at the age of 5 with the faith of a little child. I'm so glad Mom taught me how to be saved. She also taught me how to put gospel tracts in people's doors in the small Canadian town where we lived. She gave me a handful and sent me out on my own, I was six years old. That was my initiation into evangelism. I started my own kids out in a similiar way by taking them with me in our outreach evangelism and visitation while they were very young. It was a good investment in their lives spiritually. Evangelism was built into their DNA as it was in mine.

At 60 I am as serious about evangelism and church planting as I have ever been. In fact, we are presently looking at starting a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic church in the very near future. There is probably more on my plate now than ever. Of course, XSTREAM is a very big part of who I am for Christ and will continue to represent my vision for the rest of my life.

My dream, at 60, is to see the ABA become truly serious about church planting and missions. There are some who are awakening to the challenge, but many have yet to catch a vision for souls and church planting. I believe it is yet possible for the ABA to become a viable and progressive association of churches if we would launch out into new horizons and become proactive with the Great Commission.

My prayer at 60 is for creative Christ-honoring changes to take place everywhere among our churches. That a renewal of evangelism and church planting would dominate our thinking at associational meetings. That our associations think less of mundane business and think more of the buisness of church planting.

May I be so bold, at 60, as to say that we would do well to spend our associational times together developing strategies and plans for church planting rather than what seems to be endless making and discussions of reports. Reports need to be put on paper then distributed and only casually referred to, in my opinion. Let's spend the extra time that would be generated in seminars, good preaching, and real planning on how we are going to reach our neigborhoods, and our nation for Christ! How to help our churches to 'comeback' from decline and imminent death.

At 60, I'm looking for some serious Christ-honoring change.

David

XSTREAM Vision

Many of you are familiar with our global (glocal) ministry but I wonder how many really know our vision. It is a vision that we want you to be a part of.

Let me go backwards a little bit in time and then bring you up to the present, ok?

Our vision for global and national church planting really began in 1975 when my wife, two small children and myself went to Toronto, Canada to plant our first multicultural church. After thirteen years and successfully planting this church we took off for London, England. In six months we had 30 attenders and then six months later we left the work with my associate. We joined with Macedonian Missionary Service in 91 and my vision expanded to higher levels than I ever expected. Thanks to men like Harold Williams and Leon Jasper, I experienced missions in a way that opened my eyes to the greater possibilities of serving Christ globally. Nearly 17 years later we now see many new churches started and more missionaries called to new places all over the world. As a result we now have missionaries and churches in places like; Albania, Jamaica, Mongolia, Lithuania, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Canada and Ukraine, to name a few.

As the foreign field continues to increase with new churches and missionaries it became apparent that the home front was failing. Even though more churches were sending out missionaries and giving to missions, yet very few new churches were being planted at home. In 2003 I was honored to be a part of the launching of a new ministry called Reach America, with Charlie Ellison and Mike Prince along with four other visionary men. It was born with a vision to "help churches plant churches". We have only begun to scratch the surface.

XSTREAM was formed officially in 2005. XSTREAM's vision is to become a ministry that promotes and develops strategies for planting and reproducing churches glocally; networking with all likeminded and willing ministries in order to encourage a church planting movement in the USA without abandoning the foreign field. We continue to pursue the opening of new fields globally and at home. We are not interested in who gets the credit or the glory because it all belongs to Jesus.

XSTREAM's vision: "Promoting a Global Church Planting Movement".

We would love for you to join us in this vision. Visit our church planting section in our website and tell us what you like and what additions you would like to see.

(Pray for the possibilities of starting a new church in Vancouver Canada in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Also pray that a significant work in Nepal can be established. )

Try Faith Promise Giving, It Works

Faith Promise giving, a method of enhanced missions giving, is spreading slowly throughout our ABA churches. I am so thankful that more churches are practicing this exciting way to give by faith every year.

In missionary and ministry circles it is becoming apparent that missions funds are getting tighter. There are more missionaries and more new ministries vying for support. It is also interesting to note that churches which practice 'faith promise giving' are very popular churches with missionaries. Faith Promise churches have caught a vision for missions that is putting many other churches to shame. So while some churches faithfully give 10-15% of their general fund to missions, there are the faith promise churches that have doubled and tripled their giving by simple faith going beyond the percentage system of giving to missions.

I once spoke with a pastor about trying faith promise in his church. He proudly stated to me that his church gave $100,000.00 to missions that year. I simply asked him, "wouldn't he like to see his church do better?" He soon learned what that meant and is now doing faith promise and watching the blessings of God increase. Some pastors think they're doing pretty good already with their church missions budget, but if they could only understand that they haven't even begun to scratch the surface of God's resources.

No matter how small or large your church is it will be blessed by faith promise giving. It's not just a 'missions revival' or a 'missions conference' that we are talking about, it is about challenging God's people to have increased individual faith in the matter of trusting God to supply through them what He would not give to them for the cause of reaching people for Christ around the globe.

Try faith promise, it works.
Go to our website and click on Church Planting then go to Faith Promise for more information.

We can help you conduct a faith promise giving conference in your church. It costs nothing but a little faith.

David

Wal-Mart Churches

No, Wal-Mart hasn't started any churches, but if they did I could only imagine what they would be like.

Without going into a lot of detail I suppose the one thing that really strikes me about Wal-Mart is that every segment of our society can be found there. It appeals to every culture, language, and race of people. Their employees are often bilingual and in some cases multi-lingual. I'm sure you have noticed the same. In fact, if you wanted to do a demographical study of your area, just go to Wal-Mart and spend some time in observation. It will tell you a lot about the people who live in your neighborhood.

It is becoming increasingly more difficult for churches to 'run away' from changing neighborhoods. Relocation has, in some cases, become economically impossible, especially if the congregation has dwindled down to just a 'faithful few'. Moving to another area doesn't fix the 'problem' either, because newer neigborhoods are not exclusively one culture anymore but many.

What is the solution? It's simple. Bloom where you are planted!

O for our churches to look more like Wal-Mart.

If you would like more information on cross-cultural evangelism in your own neighborhood please contact us.

David P Smith

Ministering to Muslims

More than likely you have met or seen a Muslim. If they don't live in your neighborhood or city yet, they will. If you frequent your neighborhood Wal-Mart you probably passed them in the isles.

More and more towns in the USA have Mosques. There is one in my city, Arlington, Texas. Their presence is escalating and we need to know more about them and how to evangelize them.

Muslims evangelize others! They are very aggressive and not ambarrassed to go door to door anywhere. Two men in their native dress came down my street earlier this year inviting people to their Mosque and sharing the Koran with anyone that would listen. It made me wonder why many missionary Baptist have decided that door knocking doesn't work. Muslims, Mormons, J.W.'s continue to grow. I wonder why? Could it be that they are door knocking and we are not?

Ministering to Muslims requires the breaking of barriers. We will need to reach out to them personally and build relationships with them in order to share the love of God with them. Have you made a Muslim friend?

Let me hear from you if you have been able to reach a Muslim person.

David

Starting a New Church?

We are praying for 100 new churches this year. Will you help us pray to reach that goal?

Starting a new church has benefits:
1. No established traditions that need changing.
2. Fresh vision and enthusiasm in the people.
3. New churches often reach more people than older established churches.

We want to hear from you if you are starting a new church. Give us some input that would help future church planters and existing ones too.

David

Comfortable with the Culture

Ed Stetzer is fast becoming one of my favorite authors on church planting. His book "Planting Missional Churches" ought to be required reading for our seminary students.

May I take the liberty of quoting several passages on pages 22 and 23 of his book:

"New churches have an opportunity that established churches often do not. They have the opportunity to contextualize the unchanging message of the gospel without any preexisting patterns to copy. They don't return to a romanticized past, but they incarnate the gospel in a biblical present."

"Many among conservative evangelical churches retreat to a preferred past in order to maintain a sense of spiritual nostalgia. Yet the church must never become too comfortable with any culture,... What the church must be comfortable with is becoming missional, always looking for the best way to reach the culture it lives in at that point in time. If anything, the church should err on the side of becoming futurists (rather than historians) in regard to culture."

It is entirely possible that many of us have become too comfortable with our American culture. We seem to be having great difficulty in separating from the culture around us. New churches are desperately needed to present a Christ who changes lives when sinners repent.

Are you comfortable with the culture?

David P Smith

Thanksgiving Missions Offering

It is wonderful how the churches of the ABA have responded to the annual Thanksgiving offering over the years. It is a real boost to the missionary salary program of our association. In just two months the offering will be received again and it would be a blessing to see a record amount come in for the salaried missionaries.

Randy Cloud and others have worked very hard to raise funds for salaried missionaries. Pray for their continued success and the Cloud's safety as they travel.


Keep up the good work Bro Randy!

David P Smith

Soulwinning is Suffering

More and more the term soulwinning is disappearing from our vocabulary. I wonder why?

Across the land our churches are declining and many are saying, "what happened?" I believe that over the years our churches, schools, and spiritual leaders have downplayed the term 'soulwinning' to other terms less powerful, such as: effective witnessing, relational evangelism, sharing the gospel, etc. (all of which are alright in themselves). The de-emphasis of the term 'soulwinning' has created a generation of believers that seldom lead a soul to Christ, and discourage door-to-door evangelism. Soulwinning is more than praying a prayer with someone, it is building a personal relationship with a person with the intent of leading them to Christ and then discipling them faithfully.

What is even more disturbing is that even gospel tracts are omitting the 'sinners prayer' and church members are discouraged from leading someone in the 'sinners prayer' in order to help them receive Christ.

All of the above has contributed to 'declining, struggling, joyless churches'. The 'turnaround' or 'comeback' church will re-establish evangelism (or introduce soulwinning) as a major priority in its ministry.

If soulwinning is suffering in your church. Please relieve the suffering!

David P Smith

Northwest Church Planting

Having traveled about the Northwest for the last couple of weeks it becomes very obvious that there are not as many churches as in the Southern states. However, there are churches in the Northwest just not a whole lot of Baptists.

With the very high number of unchurched people in our country (80+%) there is certainly a need everywhere. But I couldn't help but notice how beautiful this part of the country is. The mountains, the trees, the rivers and streams, the wildlife! It is absolutely breathtaking. And in many places the winters are not really very difficult to handle.

It is the people that are most in need of being reached! Many in the Northwest do not have a knowledge of God's free pardon of sin through Jesus. The Northwest is a goldmine for church planters if they will only catch the vision.

David P Smith

Nagivators

Yes, it's another new word. This one is my own original. "Nagivators" are people who nag you until you go in their direction and buy into their vision. I'm not sure it is a negative as much as it is an aggravational (new word again?) approach to get something done.

Navigators guide vessels through land, air and sea. "Nagivators" guide people by nagging them to the point of aggravation in order to impose their will on them. The downside of this is, once your nagivated enough you will rebel and go in another direction.

I love to be navigated by someone who knows where they are going in life and ministry. But a nagivator is someone that has an opinion of where things ought to go having never been there and aggravates you to the point your ears become deaf and you rebel.

Keep your eyes and ears open to the Biblical navigators who show the way and ignore the 'nagivators' who really don't know what they are saying.

Short Term Missions Trips

One of the best ways to get churches turned on to missions and evangelism is to encourage pastors and members to go on a Short Term Missions trips.

Until the people in the pew see with their own eyes what God is doing in the world and put their hands on it, they will probably not understand what all the excitment is about.

Part of turning a church around or having a 'comeback church' is being 'missional'. This is a term that simply describes the purpose of the church, like 'scriptural' describes the nature of a church. Being missional is simply getting hold of the Great Commission in a personal and relevant way which engages everyone in the church.

Go on a short term missions trip and be missional. We can help. Call us.
David P Smith
XSTREAM

Start Tracking 100 New Churches

We have issued a challenge to the ABA that we start 100 new churches. We now have our website www.goxstream.org., ready to track new church starts, new missions, new bible studies and new small groups. Yes, we'll track it all. Please spread the word about this and help us find the new churches and groups that are out there. Just go to our website and click church planting and then register.

We have extended our tracking to all kinds of new works so that we can better grasp what God is doing among us. Help us please.

What an exciting thing it would be if we went beyond the 100 mark!

David P Smith

Comeback Churches

Just finished an awesome book by Ed Stetzer, "Comeback Churches". It is a must read for any man who finds himself pastoring a plateaued or declining church. What insight this author has!

Churches can comeback from the brink of death or decline, but many choose not to do so. Isn't that amazing? They would rather die holding on to traditions that no longer benefit the kingdom of God than to do what is necessary to become alive and relevant in their communities. I find this very dismaying.

If your church needs to comeback from the edge of decline and death then read this book and make some changes. The changes most needed in our churches are 'heart' and 'attitude' changes.

You can be a "comeback church". Read the book.
David P Smith

Simply Starting a Church

The simplicity of the gospel must tell us something.

Church planting has become all too difficult for the average Church to really figure out. If the simple gospel is going to be simply told we are going to have to simply start churches.

All too often our churches have agonized over the expense of starting a new church. For example: raising enough money to partly or even fully pay the salary of a church planter; raising funds to buy land and ultimately build a building. These are legitimate expenses if we choose to start churches the complicated way. That is not to say that at some time in the future these will be real expenses; but who should bear the greater part of this? If it is going to be simply a church then the church that is being started ought to carry the bulk of the burden from the beginning. And when it is ready to buy land and build a building, it will by God's grace.

But simply, why would a new church want to buy land and build a building when it can rent facilities or meet in donated buildings for a lot less than engaging in great financial manuevers. Most unbelievers don't have a church building orientation, therefore they will probably not care if they have their own property unless someone tells them differently. It's the Christian crowd that looks for nice facilities to worship in and that's ok, but who are we trying to reach anyways? Who are we trying to please?

There are numerous places in the free world, including the USA, where churches do not have their own facilities and are quite happy, growing and not saddled with huge million dollar pieces of property. They are simply doing church without all of the trappings. And that's allright, isn't it?

Simply starting a church must be simpler than what some have made it to be.

Indigenous Churches USA

We have been seeing an outpouring of God's Spirit in numerous places around the globle. It has been evidenced in the planting of 100's of new churches in many different countries. Planting new churches is the most effective way to evangelize a city, a country, a continent. But these churches are part of a movement to establish 'indigenous churches'.

To many in the ABA 'indigenous' is a new term. It's not new, just new to us. It means essentially that something can grow, reproduce, and thrive naturally without any outside or foreign intervention. This, we are learning, is working well with the establishment of new churches in foreign countries that are self-supporting, self-governing, self-propagating and scripturally sound from the 'git go'.

It is time to adapt these principles of indigenous church planting to the USA. We would be establishing many more churches if we seriously considered allowing new churches to be indigenous from the beginning. It would be cost effective. It would call for spiritual leaders to be raised up from their own congregations. It would solve a lot of problems and maybe create some new ones. But, churches would be started. We can work out those challenges that will come. Let's just begin.

The Casting of a Vision

For those who need a positive grasp of 'vision' it would be good to define the term:

Biblically, many refer to Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish:" when they talk about vision. Of course, we know that vision there initially refers to the Word of God delivered to a man of God who then tells the people of God what God said. When there was no vision it meant that God had not communicated with man the Word of God for a period of time.

Needless to say, we have the Word of God in its entirety and there is no need for more revelation. But 'vision' goes further than that. It speaks of what the people of God will become if there is no vision or spoken declaration of God; it says they will perish. The 'perishing' has to do with eternal destiny and even more to do with daily living and the spreading of the knowledge of God's Word, specifically the "Good News".

When there was no prophet with a 'vision' from God, the people lacked "visionary leadership". This was the kind of leadership that knew what God wanted and weren't afraid to declare it. God wants us to "be witnesses unto Him" and "Go into all the world". This is God's vision for us today. This is the vision that needs to be cast. So sending out a challenge to plant 100 new churches is certainly part of the vision of God.

The casting of a vision requires visionary leadership;leaders who clearly understand God's will and declare it in such a way as to challenge others to obey it. Our leadership influence seems to be restricted to a few school periodicals that live in the days of past glory and little hope for better days ahead. I believe it is time to cast some kind of a vision to our ABA people or they will perish.

Someone Tell it...100 New churches!

We are in the middle of our ABA messenger meeting as this blog is being written. So maybe some of my brothers will catch this.

How simple it would be for someone on the platform of the Messenger Assembly to say: "Let's set a national goal of starting 100 new churches", or "How wonderful it would be if the churches of ABA would determine start 100 new churches next year." Would someone be bold enough to cast that vision?

In the meantime we could help this little grassfire to spread by simply telling others around us:
"Let's encourage our churches to plant 100 new churches this year".

Someone keep telling it until we catch it. Let's start 100 new churches!
David

More Churches Started

If more churches are going to be started there will be a need for greater emphasis on associational cooperation as well as increased information on the topic of church planting. I believe that there would be more funds in the ABA missions program if churches saw that there were more new churches being started.

Without compromising the autonomy of the local church it would be essential to establish some meaningful structure within our associated work that enables church planting. This structure ought to be servant to the churches providing every conceivable element necessary for successful church planting. Of course, it would not send missionaries and it would not be a board. Just a simple committee on "Church Planting" given the freedom to do everything it can to advance church planting. Is this too hard or what?

This structure could be established and funded easily by a simple motion on the floor. It would be so easy to establish a "church planting offering" once a year like the Thanksgiving offering and totally fund this effort. Why not have our own "Lottie Moon offering" or "Annie Armstrong" offering? Or maybe we ought to redirect the Thanksgiving offering to a "church planting committee"?

Thank God for at least one ministry that is trying to address this issue of church planting. O that more would arise!

Can We Start 100 New Churches?

I guess it has a lot to do with what we mean by starting 'new churches'.

A new church would definitely be an assembly of born-again, baptized believers of at least 2 or 3 in agreement to carry out the Great Commission. But this question certainly implies that we are looking for a development of beginning absolutely new works in a given year in order that we may call them 'new churches'. So, let it be 'new churches'.

Now, lest we get sidetracked, this is about planting churches. If we (ABA) planted 100 new churches in a given year, it would probably be an historical event, because I don't believe it has ever happened. But it could easily happen if just 10% of ABA churches decided to take this seriously.

Here's how the churches of the ABA could start 100 New Churches:
1. Empower the President, VP's, Secretary Treasurer, to set church planting goals so that the churches of the ABA would be encouraged in a greater way to start new churches.
2. Elect a church planting committee for the sole purpose of evaluating, encouraging, researching, and recommending to the churches of the ABA how and where to effectively establish new churches in order to achieve increased church planting. (give them the means to do this if at all possible).
3. Encourage each local church to either plant a new church or assist in meaningful partnership with a church that is starting a new church in order to facilitate church planting.
4. Ensure that each new church start is indigenous as possible from the very beginning.
5. Establish internship programs in healthy local churches for the purpose of developing new church planters.
6. Enlist churches and church planters specifically for this purpose.

For a single church to start a new church here are some simple suggestions:
1. Tithe your membership (100 members? take 10 and start a new church. 50 members? tithe off 5 and start a small group. Don't let your size or age determine whether you will start a new church.) Let's start churches 'on purpose' instead of by the 'split' process.
2. Start a small group in a neighborhood where a church member lives for the specific purpose of starting a new church.
3. Coordinate several churches in a given locale and each tithe off its membership to start a new church. (churches that give up members will find that God replaces those given up.)
4. Release leaders in the church and send them out to start a small group which could become a church.
5. Raise up spiritual leaders from within the local church and don't wait for an 'ordained preacher' to begin the new church.
6. Start a new church by faith and don't wait for the resources to begin it. Rely on God.

Well, those are simple suggestions to what seems to be an overwhelming task for some. The solution lies within the desire of the heart. Is it in your heart to get involved? Would you like to be a part of the solution to starting new churches? Then let's begin.

Let's Start 100 New Churches!

Isn't it time to set some goals? If you have nothing to aim at you'll hit it every time.

This is a call for the ABA to start 100 New Churches in the next associational year!

Who will hear this call and be willing to respond to it? Who can help us reach this realistic goal? Let's start a groundswell, a grassfire that will encompass our entire association.

How will this goal be achieved? We need 100 churches that will respond by saying, we will start a new church/mission this year. We need 100 men who will say, "I am going to start a new church this year?" How hard is that? We need your participation and commitment to this call. Can we solicit you to join us? Let us know you will participate, let us know you will pray for this to happen. Let us know so that we can track the working of God in this biblical enterprise.

If you will join us contact us at www.goxstream.org or dsmith5165@afo.net to start the movement. Let's start 100 new churches this year.

A Church Planting Committee?

We have a Memorials Committee, A Chaplaincy Committee, A Missionary Committee, A History and Archives Committee, and some more that I probably missed. But where is the Church Planting Committee, or Committee on Evangelism and Outreach?

As most committees go, a lot is said and very little may actually be accomplished. If so, then maybe a Committee on Church Planting wouldn't be that great of an idea. Although, it might serve to get some serious talking going about what needs to be done in the way of real church planting. It would at the very least show that as an association of churches we are seriously intent upon changing the status quo and willing to offer recommendations for the establishment of new churches.

What would a Church Planting Committee do? They would gather information of how many missions were started and churches organized over the past 10 years. Then they would study the results of why so many churches have closed their doors, and what we need to do to start more healthy churches for the future. They would evaluate past church planting methods. They would make us aware of the condition of things as they are with recommendations for future church planting. The committee would find ways to challenge us to start more churches through all available means and especially at association meetings, etc. They would launch prayer movements to reverse the present trend. They would advertise, promote, encourage, challenge, eat and sleep church planting. Would that be too hard to do?

Let's get it started. Who will help us get this ball rolling?

Starting Indigenous Churches

Indigenous church?

Defined: that which is culturally relevent, self-supporting, self-propagating, self-governing and biblically sound. There may be some better definitions but I believe this one pretty well says it.

Finally, we are beginning to see indigenous churches being planted overseas. American missionaries are now training national pastors in their own local areas to plant churches. These native pastors are being supported by their own people on their own economy and not with US dollars.

Don't you think it is time to start indigenous churches in America? It used to be so a generation or two ago. A man called of God, burdened about souls in a certain location, would take his family and move to where God called him. Then, while working a full time job he would win souls and meet in his home or some other place until enough people were joined together to begin to subsidize his salary. Little by little the new church (baby) would begin to set funds aside and giving would increase and they would rent a larger facility. Without the financial help of a sponsoring church, association, or anyone else, baby churches like this would most likely take ownership and grow into a healthy church.

I agree that it would be nice to have some assistance to get a church started, however, it appears that many prospective church planters are really wanting it too easy. It is essential that the church planter and his wife (team) be fully committed to planting a new church and be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to do the work. The rewards always come later when the church begins to grow.

It is worthy to note here that one of the reasons more churches are not being started is the prohibitive cost of not only supporting the church planter but the expectation that the sponsoring church will have to be responsible for purchasing land and building a facility. This is most unfortunate.

Would you or your church be more apt to get involved with starting a new church if you knew it would be an indigenous church from the beginning? Leave your comments.

Jerry Falwell

I never met Jerry Falwell, but I always wanted to.

He was a Man of God. He was a Visionary. He was used of God. He was hated by the left and criticized by the right. But he stayed true to his calling. He loved the Bible and he loved souls.

If I could accomplish just one-tenth of what this man did for the glory of God I would consider myself to have been exceedingly blessed.

It is time for great visionary men of faith to rise up and claim the next generation for Christ and become champions for Christ. Where are they?

David

Churches Planting Churches Planting Churches...

Churches reproducing themselves is the watchword for church planters. Building this into the dna of a new church plant is critical to its reproduction.

The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia and NAMB have determined that if a new church does not plant another church within three years of its constituting (organizing) that it probably never will plant another church. This is staggering considering that possibly over 60% of ABA churches have never started another church. We can change that!

Discipleship is only successful when one has discipled another who has discipled another who has discipled another. In church planting it is the same. We need churches planting churches that are planting churches that are planting churches.

Let's start a church planting movement. Start where you are. Start with an LTG.

Let's start churches that start churches that start churches...

A Call For Change Agents

Change is resisted by all of us. Change is inevitable and those who fight it will die a slow death. Changing is what our world is doing daily and yet so many of us are still living in yesterday's shadows unwilling to change.

It is time to change.

This is a call to all change agents to rise up and make a difference where they are. Make a difference in your church. If it needs to change, then lead out with a positive example and show the way. Make change happen in a way that glorifies Christ and loves His people.

This is not a call for some to change the way of worship, or the way of dress, or a call for the old ways or for new ways, but a call for renewed passion. Lost souls have been neglected long enough in Hometown, USA, and it is time to change. We need change agents with a passion for lost souls to rise up now.

It is not time to change for the sake of change, but to change for the sake of the gospel.

Strategy To Start New Churches

Most of us are convinced that we need to start new churches. The questions remain: Who will start them? Where will we start them? How will we fund them? When will churches begin to start new churches? What do we do to get it all started?

Simple strategy is often most effective. But sometimes the simplicity of a matter is complicated
by overwhelming circumstances that seem to prohibit the possibilities of accomplishing the simple task. Confused yet?

Simple strategy needs to be arrived at by the consensus of the few or the many who will then act upon their strategy to achieve what seems to be against overwhelming odds.

Bottom line is "What is the strategy to start new churches?" The answer is "simply doing it!"

Efforts are being made by great new ministries like Reach America ( www.reachamerica.org) to help churches start new churches. They have a simple strategy. They are simply doing it!

Where Is The Harvest?

People are always asking me, Bro David where have you been? Where are you going next? They ask because they know I travel a lot to many different places on our globe doing ministry and evangelism, encouraging church planting and looking for church planters/missionaries. I like to answer them this way, "I am looking for the harvest fields!" "I'm looking for the places where God is working."And God is working magnificently. It is estimated that 155,000 souls are redeemed every day all around the globe. It is most exhilirating to be a part of this great work of God.

Some will ask me, "Where is the harvest? Where is the greatest need for missionaries and church planting?" Sometimes I'm not even sure where to begin to answer. I'm not sure if they really want to know. But I tell them, "EVERYWHERE!" Just look around you. There is a harvest right in front of you, behind you, beside you. Some people don't get it because their eyes are closed. The harvest they had in mind was different from what I was speaking of.

The harvest is not only white, it is black, red, brown and yellow. The harvest has changed its color. But it is still a harvest, and greater than we can even calculate. Where is the harvest? It is all around us and it is rotting on the ground as we speak. America is ripe for the harvest.

Are We Living In The Last Days?

Are we living in the last days? I'm not sure.

I ask this question because there are so many of my preacher friends who have assumed that the end is upon us and that we have little or no hope that anyone wants to listen to our message anymore. Why give up now? Why get discouraged now when the windows of heaven are ready to burst with blessings? If things are as bad as some folks think, shouldn't we be taking advantage of this moment in history for ministry and Christ? Don't give up now, ministry is at hand! A harvest is ready to be gathered for those who will go.

What harvest? The harvest Jesus spoke of, you know, those "white" fields where there are so few laborers? Many have lost sight of the harvest and given over to negativism and pessimism.

The harvest is about geography and attitude. There are places all over the world where hundreds and thousands are coming to Christ and starting churches everywhere. There are also many places in the USA where a harvest of souls is occuring. But it requires the lifting up of our eyes and looking on the fields in order for us to see the harvest and bring it in.

Maybe we are living in the last days, praise God! So let's plant churches and win souls as a welcome to the coming Savior.

The Antioch Attitude

The attitude of the believers in Antioch was to start new churches. They sent out some of the finest men of their congregation and commissioned them. They fasted and prayed, they sent them out. The Holy Spirit was with them.

Now, I ask you, what more do we need than the Antioch example? But, how much will it cost? How can we do it without greater resources? The early church planters found their resources in the harvest. Perhaps we should take a similar approach to church planting today.

I fear that many churches are hesitant to start new churches today because they are overwhelmed with the cost and commitment that is involved in a traditional church plant. There will always be a cost. There will always need to be a commitment. But do we need to think in the traditional way? Buy land and build a building? That now seems to be the traiditonal way of doing mission work/church planting. It is time for us to get beyond this and remove these restraints from our thinking.

"Every Church Planting a Church" ought to be our watchword. Our attitude is the Antioch Attitude, a new attitude to start new churches.

Start New Churches Or Die

Starting new churches is far more critical to our ongoing existence than what many may presently understand. We only need to look to Great Britain and see hundreds of church buildings that were once housed by Baptists are now being used as museums, warehouses, mosques, you name it. It is beginning to happen in America.

Already it is clear that there are more churches disbanding and closing their doors than there are new churches being started. Isn't it time for us to turn the tide? Starting new churches will begin to reverse the process. But we must begin now. Some churches need to die because they have served their purpose and time, but these must give birth to new churches so that their kind will not disappear. They will need to reproduce and multiply or die without children.

Those that have a preoccupation with the past and glorify it will have to pay a terrible price, since they have no children, there will be no one to write their history. We have committees established to record our history and archives and we need them; but wouldn't it be more expedient to form committees on how to start healthy new churches? It is time for our association of churches to form a committee, a plan, a strategy to multiply and start new churches. It is time for us to know how many churches have been started in the previous year and how many we pray will be started for the next year. Where is the leadedrship? Where are the voices raised, shouting "Let's plant more churches!" ?

Start new churches or die. Start new churches and live.

Where are the preacher boys?

Where are the preacher boys? It seems there are not enough to fill the empty classrooms of Bible Institutes in different parts of the country. The question is being raised: "Is God still calling men into the ministry?" And the answer is "of course He is". Others answer it this way, "God is calling but men are not answering". That may be true to some lesser degree as it has always been.

Perhaps another question should be asked: "Where are the preacher boys going?" Going? Yes, if God is calling men to preach and some are answering, and our Institute classrooms are depleting, then where are they going to get their training for ministry? They are going to other schools of training. Many of them will not come back.

And yet another question is begged: "Why are the preacher boys going?" Many answers could be offered here. Maybe your answer is the right one.

My observation is that it will require a larger vision to capture the hearts of young men than what they are receiving if we are going to keep them. Spiritual motivation and inspiration to the highest degree is critical to developing the man of God in order that he might strive for his God given vision for ministry. We have emphasized the "letter of the law" and diminished the power of the Spirit all too often.

It is also my observation that the single most motivating factor for a young man of God is the amount of personal soulwinning experience he receives. Wherever there is genuine spiritual excitement it is because there is active soulwinning and new churches being started. It is like a magnet that pulls hard on the soul of the man of God. It stirs the soul of all of us when these wonderful things occur. And is it happening, yes! But where? Wherever some of these young men of God are going!

Multi-Cultural Ministry

Multi-cultural ministry is here. It is time for churches to step up to the challenge.

Reacting to the cultural changes in our country in a positive and spiritual manner is critical to bringing in what is probably the greatest harvest of souls this country will ever see in this generation.

It is most noticeable on the weekends in my local Wal-Mart, but at most any given time that I might go, there they are, people from all over the world. Where have they come from? Africa, Asia, Russia, the Middle East, South and Central America, etc. It is truly a phenomenon to many who are living in small-town America because many of these new cultures are represented there as well. When an East Texas town has its own mosque you know that things are rapidly changing everywhere.

Reach out? or Run? We can't run forever. It's time to turn around and reach out with the love of God and show our new neighbors who Jesus is. I am proud to say that more and more of God's people are witnessing to the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs that they come in contact with.

It is time for our churches to begin looking more like Wal-Mart. And it is possible to bring them to Christ and to your church. You will be surprised how open your new immigrant neighbors are to friendship.

If you need resources to help reach the new people in your town please contact us and we will be glad to help you.

Glocal

Church Planting globally is my burden. The term 'glocal' (global+local), describes more specifically the scope of my vision.

It often occurs that when we emphasize the global vision that people get convicted about the needs for evangelism at home, locally. This is nothing more than the Holy Spirit at work awakening us to the fact that we have been negligent of our duties at home and needful of fulfilling the Great Commission here as well. However, some will ignore the conviction they experienced regarding the call to global missions and justify themselves by arguing "Let's take care of our own 'backyard' first." Unfortunately, the work just doesn't get done in either place as it should.

So let's talk about the glocal picture. Glocal more adequately defines Acts 1:8 doesn't it? We are called to go both here at home and to the uttermost regions of the world with the Good News. Nearly everytime we take missions teams overseas God calls missionaries from those teams, or stirs fires in the hearts of those who go that they become change agents in their local churches. Because of the global missions experience of just one person the local church to which he/she belongs becomes the recipient of God's blessing. Want your church to be blessed? Go on a missions trip. What is interesting is that if only the local picture is emphasized the global vision is seldom caught. But if the global vision is promoted, the local vision is more likely to take root. Hence 'glocal'.