When life gives you lemons...learn to shepherd horses?

We all know the saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  

In January of this year, I wrote an excited blog about the growth of our US team, with three new team members.  Two short months later, all three of those team members were gone.  While the reasons for their departure are not pertinent here, I was left feeling discouraged and dejected, like I was holding a bucket of lemons.

But around the same time, a new friend from India suggested that I read a book called Shepherding Horses, by Kent Humphreys, and this book gave me insight into how to turn these particular lemons into lemonade.  It talks about different roles that we might find in the body of Christ:

• Shepherd pastors - Giving care, guidance, protection, and feeding of sheep.
• Sheep - Loyal members in a church who support the pastor and follow his/her shepherding.
• Horses - Leaders by personality, background, and experience.  Don't really feel like they fit in with the sheep.  Passion is often aimed at what is done outside the church walls.
• Combinations of the above - Specifically in this book, the combination of a shepherd and a horse: a shepherding horse.  When trained, they will multiply the ministry of God's work in the marketplace and community.  (No surprise why this book was recommended to me!)

This book then reviewed what is probably familiar to most of us - the five ways in which Jesus did his ministry on earth:

1. He told everyone to respond to the good news.

2. He taught many to understand God's principles.
3. He trained some to do the work.
4. He equipped a few to reproduce.
5. He modeled a relationship with the father.

DML is seeking to respond to everyone (#1) with the reminder that "work is worship" and that we were created to work and care for the earth (Genesis 1:28, 2:15).  We are teaching pastors, denominational leaders, and marketplace ministers to understand God's principles relating to being the church from Monday-Sunday (#2).  We have training teams across fourteen countries in many different cities who are training others (#3).  We have the leaders of our implementing partner organizations/denominations who are showing an incredible ownership of this message as they desire to disseminate this information not only within their own church, denomination, community, and even nation - but to go beyond that to neighboring countries.  They are hungry for this message of freedom from "work as drudgery" to "work as worship," breaking down barriers of purposeless life and work, to joy every day in and through our work.  

This brings us to #4, "equipping a few to reproduce."  Rather than hiring new people in the US and trying to develop loyalty to the DML ministry, we have decided to divide necessary tasks among ourselves (as a team of 18 key leaders) across 15 countries.  We now have one of our leaders leading chaplaincy and media, someone leading metrics and reporting, someone helping with research, and so on.  But what is most exciting to me is the starting of what I'm calling "missionary journeys," as our leaders are getting requests to take this message to new places and countries as the Spirit leads.  Two of our leaders have given up their local churches and are now going fulltime with DML, and God is opening doors to them throughout their own country and in neighboring countries. As conversations naturally happen across borders, we are seeing connections made more naturally and authentically than when someone randomly sees something about DML on the internet and writes to us.  

We have many shepherding horses on our team!

And that brings us to the last one, #5:  Modeling a relationship with the Father.  This is something that all of us must do within our own spheres of influence.  But as I travelled on this last trip, I heard the DML leaders express both joy and fatigue at the many opportunities that they are receiving.  So we are starting what I'm calling a DARE club (Discipleship and Accountability for Rest and Energy).  When you work amongst the poor and vulnerable, there is a "tyranny of the urgent."  To not answer your phone can be perceived as a sign of disrespect.  It is DARING and it takes courage to set boundaries!  We want to model sabbath, rest, and balance, just as Jesus did.  We recognize that we are not God, while still loving and serving with excellence.

There's much more that I can write, but I'll leave it here for now.  I wanted to catch you up on some of these changes and to hear us say as a team that God is good!

The Danger of Free

Many of us know the danger of giving things for free, but I heard this recently and liked the way it was put together:

The first time you give someone something for free, you create appreciation.

The second time you give someone something for free, you create anticipation.

The third time you give someone something for free, you create expectation.

The fourth time you give someone something for free, you create entitlement.

The fifth time you give someone something for free, you create dependency.

Then, if you don't give something for free a sixth time, there may be resentment and even hatred. 

This challenge is global, as churches and pastors in many places (especially places with poverty) are constantly being asked for funds.  We have been teaching boldly that the church should not see businesspeople as an ATM but neither should the members see the pastor as an ATM.  

Be very careful that your generosity does not lead someone else's dependency.  The highest form of charity, according to Jewish tradition, is help someone find employment in order for the person to support themselves.  Too often we settle for a lower form of charity, as described in the levels of charitable giving.

So we encourage you to support and encourage a local employer today!  Thank them for the important work they are doing in providing salaries that sustain individuals and families!  Pray for them as they care for their employees, that they may see them as part of their household and seek their flourishing.

DML is making sustainability projects a priority for each of our partners, challenging them to see how they can raise funds from within their own country and churches for the support of this ministry, or doing a business to help raise local funds, thereby also practicing what they are preaching.  We are excited by some of the ideas that we are hearing and continue to pray that we may continue to work in ways that promote healthy relationships and the flourishing of all!

From $0 to $27,600: Social Enterprise in Ethiopia!

DML is ten years old this year, and in Ethiopia last week, we celebrated our five-year anniversary with the first denomination to officially join DML, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church (EKHC).  

When we started working with EKHC in 2018, they had 10,000 churches with 10 million members.  Today, they have 11,000 churches with 12 million members.  They are doing amazing work!  We were told that they believe DML is having a positive impact on the denomination financially as well, as the income coming from the local church to the headquarters has doubled in the past couple of years.  While not all of that can be attributed to DML, we know that tithes and offerings have been increasing as business has been increasing.  The picture shows the DML leader, Yoseph Bekele, on the left; then Dr. Simeon Mulato, the head of the EKHC, then Yonatan Simon, DML lead trainer, then Dr. Walker, and myself.

But as is the case with many of our partners, this message is not just for one denomination - it is for the people of God.  Because of this, at our recent Training of Trainers in Addis Ababa, we had people from other denominations in the room, and some shared what they have learned from EKHC DML team.

We heard a testimony from one of the leaders (pictured here) from Meserete Christos, a Mennonite denomination with Pentecostal influence.  They have 1200 churches in Ethiopia.  This leader first heard about DML on TV when he heard the DML leader (Yoseph Bekele) talking about marketplace ministry.  Yoseph is on two weekly TV programs talking about marketplace ministries.  This leader contacted Yoseph who has since done three trainings for this denomination.  

From these trainings, the church decided to open a school to teach the poor about business and how to do work as worship!  One hundred members of this church also got together to open a social enterprise for the community.  To date, they have raised 1.5 million Ethiopian birr (or $27,600 US dollars)!  Wow!  So amazing!  They are now looking to open another shop in another area.

We continue to thank God allowing us to join Him in this message, which is for all people, all nations, all income levels, all education levels, and all denominations!  To Him be the glory, now and forever!

The 85 DML trainers from all over Ethiopia!

Frustration Leads to Change: Meet Abraham from Ethiopia

Greetings from Burundi, the last stop in this current trip.

At our training in Addis Ababa last week, we heard the following testimony from Abraham, who lives in Jinka, Ethiopia and travelled 600 km to attend this training.  

"My father was an evangelist and he was paid almost nothing. We were so poor growing up.  Yet the church structure did not allow evangelists or missionaries to do business to supplement their income.  As I grew up, I was so angry at our poverty and how he was treated.  It felt like no one cared if we lived or died."  

Abraham in the center, with some team members.

So Abraham decided that he would not merely survive, and went into business for himself.  From his business, he put himself through college and worked hard.  

Then in 2019, he heard the message of Discipling Marketplace Leaders through his denomination (the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church - EKHC) and he saw an opportunity to take his anger and turn it into something productive.  He heard that work is a good and holy calling.  He heard that it is not "secular."  He heard that most people in the Bible were also working in the marketplace.  

So, he started an association called "Christian Professionals Association" which encourages local businesses to meet economic needs.  They now have 30,000 members and are growing rapidly.  They specifically target motivating missionaries and evangelists to be co-vocational - something his father was not allowed to do.  They have given trainings in 314 churches in southern Ethiopia and have trained three trainers in each of these local churches to continue this work.  They have fourteen centers now, and in addition to teaching a healthy theology of work and basic business principles, they also teach about healthy marriages, ethics, and having a healthy relationship with God.  

One of their major projects has been to use the natural resources around them and they have secured 51 hectares of land, with a nursery of 480,000 coffee plants, which they sell to members to help them in their own production.  They also have a banana and apple nursery, and are in the process of adding value addition machinery to begin processing in that area as well.

But he was so happy to report that attitudes toward evangelists is changing and things are becoming much healthier.  This association has also planted sixteen EKHC churches and have sent (and are supporting) missionaries to the Tigray region of Ethiopia, and to Eritrea and South Sudan.  They hope to plant 30 more churches in the next three months!

This is how just one person who heard the message of "work as worship" channeled his frustration into positive change.  And we are hearing this message over and again.  As people are released to see that all things, when done unto the Lord, are sacred, there is an unleashing of potential.  We thank God for this!

The beautiful and fertile land in Jinka - a gift from God!

The coffee plant nursery.

The leaders for the Christian Professionals Association.

The year of planting coffee!