Transform Our World

I just returned from several days in California at the Transform Our World conference, with Ed Silvoso.  I've been quoting this man for about ten years, as he has written a number of very good books.  His book, Anointed for Business, was required reading for our Church-based Business as Mission class.  My favorite quote from Dr. Silvoso (which I had the privilege of quoting back to him!) is this:  Christianity is like a football (soccer) game:  20,000 spectators in desperate need of exercise watching 22 players in desperate need of rest."  

I found this man to be a sincere, earnest man, leading a global movement of people doing church every day in every space.  He is 78 years old, full of energy, and committed to work to build the church for as many years as God gives Him the ability.  He is from Argentina originally and has amazing stories of how God has shaped his life through trials and blessings.  

The conference was four days of testimony after testimony from Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, Egypt, Argentine, Hawaii, Canada, and so many more.  As they said, "If people don't go to church, that's okay.  We are like Pizza Hut.  We deliver."  And that is what they do - they are bringing the church to the Marketplace - government, education, and business.

My goal in this visit was to see whether there is potential for us to partner together and complement or add value to each other in our ministries.  I believe there is potential - and they believe that as well - so we will continue to learn from each other and see how we can continue to build the body of Christ.  Shout out to Jean, a supporter of DML in a number of ways, and new friend to me, who loves connecting people and helped me to connect with Transform Our World!

Dr. Ed Silvoso and his wife Ruth.  A privilege to meet these saints!

How God strengthens the Bars of our Gates

In a world marked by ongoing conflicts, including those in Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, Russia, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon, there is a collective yearning for peace and a longing to understand how to contribute to it. Psalm 147:12-14 offers insight. 

12 Extol the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion.13 He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. 14 He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

Martin Luther's interpretation of this text emphasizes that the term "bars" encompasses not only physical barriers but also the elements that safeguard a society, including good governance, sound city ordinances, and wise leadership. These, he asserts, are divine gifts. (From Every Good Endeavor, by Tim Keller)

Luther delves into how God secures a city's safety. He concludes that while God's sovereign hand plays an unperceivable role in this, He also works through human agents, such as lawmakers, police officers, and government officials, who become extensions of His protection. Hence, every diligent police officer, in donning their uniform to safeguard the city, is, in essence, doing God's work.

This perspective yields two vital conclusions. 

Firstly, all ethical and purposeful work that promotes human flourishing and the responsible stewardship of the environment is an extension of God's role in sustaining and caring for His creation. 

Secondly, when we excel in our vocations, we serve the people who benefit from our efforts. 

By performing our work with a commitment to honor God, it becomes a tangible expression of love for our neighbors.

This understanding aligns with Jesus' instruction to love our neighbors, emphasizing that our daily endeavors are opportunities for community care and service.

Ultimately, these insights resonate with the Lord's Prayer, which calls for daily sustenance and prays for the realization of God's kingdom and His will on Earth. They remind us that our work, when carried out with diligence and integrity, can be a part of bringing God's peace and provision to our communities and our world.

May God continue to use us to join Him in strengthening the bars of our gates, reminding us that we are blessed to be a blessing.

Home Sweet Home

For six of the past seven weeks, I have been on the road.  On this trip there were seventeen beds in fourteen cities, in five countries.  There were ten speaking engagements with 160 hours in workshops, of which I taught for over 100 of those hours.  There were many meetings in-between as well, along with many hours of preparation in-between.  Wow.  Makes me a bit tired to write that out!  The map shows the places I visited in September.  I am so thankful for all the people I was able to meet, the DML teams who joined me in the work, and the amazing supporters who help to make all of this possible!

I'm now back in Michigan for about ten days, before heading to California for a short conference.  It's good to be home!  

Last week, I spent time recording our Integrity and Finance class, as well as our Financial Freedom Class for Families at a studio in Harlingen, Texas.  I taught 21 thirty-minute videoed sessions with a professional camera crew, who will then edit and release the videos so that our partners can do voice-overs as needed.  This is a very important opportunity as it allows us to move away from trainers and toward facilitators.  Facilitators are easier to equip, as they are able to play the video, pause and have discussions.  It allows us to standardize the material more. 

We have partnered with an organization called Nation to Nation Christian University, who has bartered with us to be able to put our courses into their own curriculum, in exchange for allowing us free use of their studio.  This is a win-win!  Nation to Nation works in more than 50 countries, offering four-year degrees to more than 30,000 students around the world, in theology, community development, leadership and more.  

Last year, we recorded our Foundational Workshop, Basic Business 1 and Basic Business II, as well as our Entrepreneurship Course.  We thank God for these courses that are being used and translated in many parts of the world!

So thankful to get back to Michigan which is full into fall with beautiful colors on the trees everywhere!

Church in the Global North and the Global South

Greetings from Harlingen, Texas, just a few miles from the border of Mexico!  This past week I was in Dallas with the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX) Forum, an annual gathering of church planting organizations from around the world.  [GACX is part of Campus Crusade for Christ or CRU.]  This year there were 400 people from 50 countries, and as always, it was an inspiring event with very sincere, earnest, passionate believers seeking to reach all people with the love of Christ.

There was a lot of data shared this week, which I found to be very interesting.  

It's not a surprise to most of us that there has been a shift in the population of the church from the Global North to the Global South.  Only 18% of Christians lived in the Global South in the year 1900, but today it is 67%.  There are 838 million Christians in the Global North but 1.1 billion Christians in the Global South.  

But the highest number of Christians can be found on the continent of Africa, with the number at 667 million, compared to 268 million in North America.  Europe is the least reached continent - there are more Christians in Saudi Arabia than in Greece!  

There are also more females who are Christian than males, so one speaker said that the face of Christianity today is an African woman!  We need to begin changing our perception of global Christian leaders to this picture!

Another interesting fact is that while the percentage of Christians worldwide has remained the same (for the past 100 years (around 32%), new data is showing that the global population growth is outpacing the growth of Christianity, which will result in a decline over time. 

But here are some other interesting facts:

More than half of all Christians live in countries where mor than 70% of the population are Christian. 

More than half of all non-Christians live in a country where less than 8% are Christian.

As one speaker said, "we are good at winning the winnable and ignoring the rest."

However, the place where Christianity is growing the fastest is in the areas where the Human Development Index is the lowest.  This is where I see the capacity of Discipling Marketplace Leaders having a positive impact on the Global Church.  We need to teach a healthy theology of work, as well as wealth creation God's way, and wealth management as God's stewards.  There is no wealth to be shared until there is wealth created.  Business has the ability to create wealth, alleviate poverty, create meaningful work, and reach people who would typically never step foot in a church.

This week I'm doing recordings of DML materials for YouTube with a partner organization, Nation to Nation, who allows us to use their studio, and then also sends DML courses to their schools around the world.  Have a blessed week!

Global Impact: Swiftly Moving Times for DML!

Greetings, dear friends!  I made it back safely from India last Sunday, was home for a week, and am now in Texas for the next two weeks.  During these two weeks, DML will be presenting at the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication conference, meeting with some local church leaders in the Dallas area for DML partnership, and then spending a full week at a studio in Harlingen, TX, recording more DML materials with an organization called Nation to Nation (N2N).  

Things are moving swiftly for DML, and it's an exciting time!

Our recent visit to India with the BAM South Asia group has garnered interest from individuals and organizations in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and many parts of India.  We are grateful to God for connecting us with those who share our mission to do work as worship.  It's truly inspiring to meet like-minded individuals who are also passionate about this message!

While I was in India, some of our partners in Africa were busy spreading the message in new places, such as Sierra Leone and Zambia.  The impact of God's work is spreading across borders, and we are thankful for the opportunities to connect with God's people worldwide.

Here are some quotes from those who attended the workshops in Zambia:

From a businessman:  "The church does not care what we go through in business.  The church believes we always have money, but at times we go through hard times of loss, and we don't find a place to share our challenges at church, which makes it very hard to identify ourselves in the Kingdom mission."

 From a pastor:  "We have a dilemma of how best to accommodate businesspeople.  We were taught to believe that having a lot of money is a sin, thus we don't have a proper way to accommodate businesspeople in church.  It's like we need them because we need their money, which is very bad."

Stay tuned as we continue to join God in what He is doing to build His church and reclaim the redeemed marketplace!

An honor to speak with a number of other great speakers at the Beyond Business conference.

Vaibhav and Sujata with Udhhar on the left, and Praveen and Chrys from GCI on the right.