to boldly go where no man has gone before

Monday morning I talked about pioneering ministry. We have a bit of experience starting from scratch, and I was asked to talk a bit about starting churches or ministries from scratch.

Talked a bit about the need to just be willing to have a go. But also to bring atleast one other person with you. A lot of this is just having the guts to jump in there and try it. And there seemed to be some importance to Jesus about sending his disciples in atleast twos.

I talked about the need to pray. Now many people think of prayer as begging God for something until He gets tired of your nagging and gives it to you. We do this with church planting and evangelism as well as material things, sickness and emotions. You have all heard the stories, just pray long and hard enough and God will give you a church. Well my concept of prayer is not like this. I really believe in prayer walks, allowing God to talk to us and reveal to us the spiritual truth of our neighborhoods. I remember walking through East Los Angeles in prayer, and seeing that all of the houses had bars on all of their windows. God used this to show me the fear of this neighborhood, and to help me understand how fear can turn a home into a prison. Ofcourse praying for people in our alone time can yield the same kinds of insights if we listen more than ask.

Lastly I talked about the idea of the person of peace. Jesus instructed His disciples to find people of peace, people that were open to them, and to the gospel. It is these people that allow us access into a culture. Sometimes these people may not accept our teaching, but they accept us, and through these relationships many doors to the community are opened. Rather than banging our head against the wall we are to seek out those that welcome us, and in turn introduce us to the community.

the rev