GlocalNet

The Application Window
From Bruce Wilkinson, Founder of “Walk Thru The Bible”
2 Timothy 3:16-17

DOCTRINE:
What should I believe?

INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS:
How Should I Believe

CORRECTION:
What should I not believe?

REPROOF:
How should I not behave?

“Application Acrostic” - 12 Questions to ask about the text
IS THERE …
A ttitude to adjust?
P romise to claim?
P riority to change?
L esson to learn?
I ssue to resolve?
C ommand to obey?
A ctivity to avoid or stop?
T ruth to believe?
I dol to tear down?
O ffense to forgive?
N ew direction to take?
S in to confess?

Last night, I had a blast with our interns. We were talking about discipleship. One of the big omissions of that discussion is generally worldview and discipleship. We got into some intensive debate and conversation about what is a Christian worldview. It left me with a lot of thoughts. “Handsome Richie” from Korea helped us understand worldview was more the combination of who you were as a person—seeing life from that. One from “Rooster Donnie” who debated it wasn’t possible to have a “Christian” worldview—it was just worldview and we all come at it from personal positions. One from “Missionary Paul” who saw it as a grouping system with one big umbrella making up several positions. Then, there was our Ph.D. “Dr. Bob” who took us on a limited historical and personal journey of what it is.

Combine all this with what I’m doing this year in my personal worship, and I think just from the first 4 days of the year it’s going to be an exciting year. I’m ready for something different. Since ’92, I’ve been reading through the Bible with a devotional and journal, and it’s been awesome, but I’ve gotten somewhat bored. So, this year I’m doing something very, very different. I found this 65- year-old book that is only the words of Jesus—the red letters. I start, as always, in my journal putting down what’s going on and what I sense God is doing. I then read only one Jesus story or saying, not my usual 5 or 6 chapters. Then, I reflect on it and ask what does this mean to me and what do I do with it. I then read a devotional by Peterson called “A year with Jesus.” This year, I have begun as a devotional N.T. Wright’s “Jesus and Victory of God” so I read a few pages out of that. Finally, I’m also reading as a devotional David Bosch’s “Transforming Mission.” It takes me an hour at least to get all this done.

Why this approach? I want to discover Jesus more and deeper than I’ve ever known Him. I want the personal reflection of who He is from His Words, combined with a theologian about who He is, and a missiologist about what implications that has for us. In just the first few days, I’ve discovered you can’t do this without serious world view issues being brought up—from …

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I’m writing a book on a particular dimension of starting churches. For the past month, I’ve been gathering resources, studying, reading, and examining what we’ve done at NorthWood, and other places. I have four months to get this sucker done with tons of lectures, studies, etc. before me—please pray for me! Twenty years ago when I started NorthWood, it was more of a denominational approach.  Fortunately, a year into our plant, I stumbled on to Rick Warren who was a part of a whole new way of me seeing the church. Then the Purpose-Driven Model became the “alternative.” It was like there was a new way to start churches and that was it! Not anymore. There as so, so, so, so many ways to start churches—so many kinds of churches—each promising to be the messiah to the church in the West. Frankly, the greatest contribution Rick Warren gave to church planting was his ability to open the door to new ways of starting churches so that multiple models would emerge—which has happened, not his Purpose-Driven model. Sometimes it may seem like a curse to a young guy figuring out which format, model, yada, yada, yada to use, but it’s really a blessing.

I was going through a notebook I used in 1994 when I taught my first church planting conference called “Planting High Yield Churches—half of it I threw away today! Two things I started with. First, new churches reach lost people better than established churches so we should start churches to reach lost people. The first half of that sentence is true. The second half is only partially true. I used to believe if I could just get them converted it was a done deal. I’ve learned that is not true. The second thing was learning to think. There were 3 questions you should ask, and did you think you’d always be relevant and be able to design your church where you are opposed to mimicking someone else. I then came up with these principles of design—most are still relevant. Some are not.

Bottom line, nothing has changed more, or is in more of a state of flux, than church planting. Today, it is more crucial than ever to learn to think critically, read broadly, evaluate carefully, study others, and travel extensively if you have any hope of doing something that will last (which is the point after all—as …

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1.  Began construction of our new Worship Center—21 years in the making!

2.  Our Team (small group) Ministry grew by 50%.

3.  Key leaders from around the country gathered to commit to plant churches.

4.  Record numbers of people involved in Haltom City, Puebla, Mexico, and Hanoi, Vietnam in multiple projects.

5.  Record giving to missions.

6.  Record number of Youth and Children baptisms.

7.  Because of NorthWood’s involvement in Vietnam, I was privileged to be a part of the historic talks for religious freedom in Vietnam and our NGO, Glocal Ventures, was placed in the MOU to be a model for how churches engage society.

8.  On a personal note, our son graduated from NYU, got engaged, and our daughter left for Baylor. My first book came out, finished my second one, and am now writing my third, with a fourth to follow. God help me!!!!

9.  On a sad note Bob and Jo Arthur, who helped us start our church, both passed away this year within months of each other.

Probably missing a lot. This is just some. Feel free to add to cool stuff!

National Geographic did a story on Steve Case, Cofounder of AOL, in its October 2006 Traveler Edition. He is investing $500 million of his personal money to launch Revolution, a company that “seeks to drive transformative change by shifting power to consumers.” One goal is to create “disruptive businesses” that will revolutionize how we live and vacation.

The man who has driven globalization more than Soros beyond economics through AOL, which I believe history will record, says, “I wouldn’t say the majority of Americans have embraced globalism. They’re still, for the most part, very America-centric. But there’s a recognition now, more than 20 years ago, that to really understand what’s happening in your everyday life, it’s more important than ever to develop a broader global understanding . . . But, the bigger change is more psychological. I sense a growing desire for meaning and purpose in people lives, and a growing recognition that might come from experiencing people in other cultures. The trick is figuring out a way to help travelers bridge the gap between the safety of their own culture and the foreignness of another.”

This guy sounds like me!!!! He wants to do vacations for people to have resorts in ethnic villages. I want to focus on vocations engaging society. He talks about how travel experiences are homogenized, but I would say so is life.

I shared with our interns the other day that I really believe the future of the church is more with the early twenties group than anyone else.

Ti has two families—one here not far from the Red River in Texas and one not far from the Red River in Hanoi! Five and a half years ago, our families were blessed with a bundle of hyper-active Vietnamese energy with the arrival of Ti Luu who was 17 and came as a high school exchange student. Ti has brought massive joy and a lot of cultural understanding to our family. We love him and he is part of our family. We also love his family in Hanoi. I have no doubt if we lived in Hanoi his Dad and I would be best friends.  Ti graduated with a degree in engineering Saturday, December 16, from Texas Christian University (TCU). Several exchange students who have lived with NorthWood members attend TCU. Many of them were there for his graduation. Right before he graduated, we called his Mom and Dad in Hanoi and he spoke to them. We took pictures and emailed them to his Mom and Dad immediately. Ti heads back home to Hanoi in January to find a job or start a company. We will miss him deeply but will get to see him as we travel to Hanoi. Ti Luu may well be the Asian Bill Gates. Rock and roll my Vietnamese son. We’re incredibly proud of you. Ti has taught the Roberts’ family many lessons. Here are just a few:

1.  When people come and live in your home, they become a part of your family if they stay long enough! Seeing one another day-in and day-out—in good moods and bad—you really find out who each person is.

2.  Every culture and family has remarkable things about which you can learn and bring into your own culture and family. The family loyalty that Vietnamese have is so far beyond anything Anglo-western culture gets today. When you live with people of different cultures, even in your own culture, their culture rubs off on you. Both of my biological kids would like to live in Asia. They love it there. Ti’s a big reason.

3.  What do you really believe about God and why? It’s easy to develop your positions from books. It’s an entirely different thing to develop them from life. It’s one thing to accept the assumptions of your ancestors. It’s another thing to think deeply about truth and what really matters …

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Recently, in response to the blog I posted about our interns, I was asked about developing leaders. There are several things that come to mind. These are not meant to be complete but represent some of what I’m reflecting on, even now, regarding a project in which I’m involved. Let me also say I do not, in the least, consider myself an expert in this area but a practitioner because of various ministries and projects in which I’m involved. From being a pastor, who is discipling a group of men, to working with church planters, to being involved in global development projects, here is some of what I’m learning. I’d like to also say, what I teach and what I try to do is what people like Bobb Biehl, Bob Buford, Leighton Ford, Kent Humphreys, Chris Grant, Roy Fish, and more recently a prayer mentor Vikki Porterfield, have taught me. I would also say this—I learn and get more from our interns and others I work with than they probably get from me.

First, you live the life and do the stuff you talk about. Bobb Biehl has taught me that credibility is gained by 3 threads, results-time-character. Results are simply what is seen. People generally listen not because of what you know or what you did, but because of what you are currently doing. Character is what you are. No one is perfect and everyone has flaws. Time gives us the ability to see those things, both good and bad, that helps us filter counsel from someone. It is the ability to be over consistent.

Second, you teach first from what you’ve experienced. Anyone can write or talk on a subject and, yet, not be a “doer.” Those who “do” and those who “talk” at first sound similar, but the deeper you go, the more you learn the differences and what may sound like semantics becomes key. Also, those who “experience” it will generally read more and more because they want to understand more. I’ve learned over the years there are two ways to gain influence, one is by what you know—people want to hear you talk about that. The other is by what you do—people want to hear the stories of what and how you did something. Teaching is passing on information. Mentoring is life-on-life and the more healthy experiences a mentor has, the more he/she has to …

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I was on a conference call last week with a small group of people with the Center for Foreign Relations. Michael Gerson, former speechwriter for President Bush and now a senior fellow at the Council, discussed President Bush’s approach to development in the world and faith. He recently had an article in the November 13 issue of Newsweek on “A New Social Gospel.” Several things stood out in my mind from the discussion:

First, faith from the government standpoint is a means, but from faith-based groups is an end. I couldn’t help but think of what we teach at NorthWood, “We serve not to convert, but because we have been converted.”

Second, the millennium campaign from the UN is trying to provide some skids for people of all persuasions to work in the world, especially the church. Yet, sadly, most people in the church have allowed the UN to become a political issue as opposed to an engagement opportunity.

Third, an observation. Too much of what was discussed was about organizations and the government and how they partner. I thought it was just the church that didn’t get how societies are developed—I was wrong. The day is now when individuals want to engage society and will do so by using their wealth and vocations. If they wait for the government, in terms of funding or connections, they can forget it. The church must not be an organization that funnels things through it. Instead, it must be a clearinghouse that connects people with people and domains of society globally.

Fourth, another observation. I wonder if the church realizes how she has marginalized herself? Because we have limited everything around the discussion of abortion and gay rights, we’ve ignored what the Bible teaches about caring for the poor, the disadvantaged, the suffering. I listened as a guy on the news with some religious rights group was trashing Rick Warren for having Barak O’Bama speak at his church. The guy said, “First abortion, and then we deal with the gay rights and then we’ll get to the social issues of poverty, etc.” And how many more years is that? And, yeah, like right—I believe that because of what I’ve seen! He reminds me of pastors who say, “Yes we’ll engage our area and then the world!” No, you don’t prioritize unrighteousness—sin is sin. You deal with what you’re confronted with and we have …

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Wow, this is weird, having my book translated in Korean! I can’t even read it! One man is an engineer, the other a pastor. The engineer stumbled onto Transformation and wanted it translated in Korean. Dave Gibbons—are you proud of me, man?

These are the greatest world changers of today heading into tomorrow!!!!!!  Postmodern, Postwestern, Postdenominational, Postoastied—anglo, Near Global, Korean, Middle-Eastern, Hispanic, Liberian—what a group of guys.  We had fun last night.  Working with these guys has become one of my greatest joys.  They keep me sharp and focused.  What will their stories be 20 years from now?  IF they know their strengths, giftings, and then discipline to keep them focused—they’ll turn the world upside down.  One thing I’ve come to see is this—God wants to use us, a whole lot more than we want God to use us.  The challenge is not with God’s ability and desire, but with our obedience and discipline.  Focus on your calling to the Kingdom and do it guys or just feel your way through life and you’ll flounder.  Rock on guys.

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