Go Forth Follow-up Event 2008 (30 Aug 08)

(Edited 8 Sep 08: This post has been edited since one of my friends said that she can't read it due to formatting problems.)

I went for the Go Forth Follow-up Event 2008 on Saturday morning with Joyce. We thought no one else from our church were going, since Jason's in Europe undergoing HR training (praise God for this wonderful opportunity!) and Yufen's unable to make it. But ah, there's this sister from our church - she asked a question during the Q&A panel discussion, pertaining to how the Business Life Ministry can help to support missions better.

So encouraging. :D Anyway, I've been thinking and starting to pray regarding whether to explore Vietnam. Might or might not be going for another missions trip to Vietnam in December. If so, I'll need to trust God for the leave provision... but well, wherever God calls me to go, I'll go!

Anyway, I asked during the Q&A session about how can children's ministry play its part in helping our children to start catching the fire of God's passion for the nations. Gosh... ALL the panelists took turns to answer. Their replies are below.

Some important things I learnt from the GoForth followup events were that we MUST prepare ourselves in every aspect of our lives, because we are literally marching to a battlefield. The stakes are even higher than a physical war - eternity lies in the balance. There have been missionaries who were inadequately prepared, and as a result, became burnt-out or even worse, converted to other religions!

Scary... truly. But yah, thank God that His preparing us is wise and well-balanced and exhaustive. If the Father took 30 years to prepare His Son before sending His Son to 3 full years of full-time ministry... then I think hor, we no need to cepat-cepat pack our barang-barangs...

Like how the SAF trains its soldiers properly before sending them off to exercises... and if necessary, war.

Ok! Here's the notes that I took down... copy-paste from MS Word. Exhaustive... but excellent!

Exhortation by Rev Barry

Philippians 1:3-18a

“I don’t know whether we’re being brave or foolhardy.”

“It’s not easy being a Christian. So if you chose to become a Christian, you’re either very brave, or you weren’t thinking much when you made that decision…”


Philippians – Paul in prison

Paul didn’t care about the hardships – he cared more about the advancement of the gospel.


What matters is whether someone is into the kingdom of God. What matters is whether he can proclaim the good news. Pauls not talking about pple preaching heresies… ‘cos in the other letters he comes down very hard on the false teachers.


But rather, he’s glad that people are preaching the true Gospel… even if their motives aren’t exactly the best.


We all would like to be rich, to have peaceful lives, good careers, good families… but do we also aspire to advance the gospel of God?


Being a missionary may not be the greatest thing you can do… it may be the most painful thing you’ve ever done.


We all will have to carry a yoke each. Qn is: is it the yoke of Christ we’re carrying or is it our own yokes?


Live Dangerously! :)


If Singaporeans start to love God, the grace of God will not stop; it’ll continue.


“I am sure of this: that He who began a good work in you will bring it on to completion till the day of Christ Jesus.”


God uses men who are feeble and weak enough to lean on Him!


Testimony

Being steadfast

– to call of God

– to position of being a missionary.

There will not be many to encourage you to missions. The road of a missionary is very lonely…

“So I encourage all of you: When the call of God is very clear to you, you need to hold fast to it. Of course there’s a price to pay. But God’s presence is with us, His promises to the ends of the earth.”


Steps Into World Missions

Practical steps:

Ms Joyce Faith Chi says: “As children of God we’re always growing.”


Preparations needed:

- Spiritually

- Intellectually informed – we’re going into a cross-cultural situation – we MUST have the intellectual capacity to relate to different cultures

- Skills

o To minister and touch lives


Share with your pastor/elder/spiritual leadership your call to missions.
In the larger churches, it may be harder for them to support you because the rest of the congregation don’t know who you are.
Accountability
i. Even Barnabas and Saul were accountable to their church…

Recognition and affirming your call
i. The church will have the time and opportunity to observe you… they’ll know where you stand now…

Encouragement and support
Godly counsel
i. God may say something to the leaders/overseers He’s appointed over you.

Be sure you’re growing spiritually
It’s not enuff to relate to God in your comfort zone… you need to also learn to relate to God in the difficult war zones, away from sources of accountability…
We’re going out to make DISCIPLES… so how can you make disciples if you yourself are not a disciple?
i. Discipleship is a daily thing. Learning to submit daily to Christ’ leadership and authority.

ii. Consistent quiet time with God

1. Not only spiritually, but also emotionally.

a. There are people who are not emotionally prepared to go for missions. They’re willing but they’re not emotionally strong enough to handle the stressful situations.

b. Personal note: To take note of this… learn to draw emotional strength from God more and more… hmm… that’s something I learnt I need to do in my Kenya missions trip.

c. Not just spiritual. You need to be emotionally strong, healed.

iii. In depth study of the Word

iv. Prayer partnership or prayer group

v. Establish a mentoring relationship

vi. Serve in the local church

1. Especially in those ministries that will help me cross over…

a. E.g. ministries to teach English to expat workers…

i. (Gosh! That’s an idea that’s been in my mind for a while already…)

Get training how to be effective in cross-cultural ministry
Cross-cultural studies… contextualization… NUS is great for this kind of stuff… but I’ve already graduated haha.
Perspective course
i. Local missionary agencies

ii. Hope Sem? Haha :D

Learn about Missions Agencies
Calling
i. Which MA I like?

Beliefs
Values
Gifts
Personality
Expectation of Care
Communicate with Missionaries
Start by finding out what missionaries your church supports
Get advice, wisdom and counsel from them
Know their needs and pray for them
Get Missions Experience
Go on short-term missions with church or agencies
Consider a 6-month or a year of internship (maybe required by church or missions course)
i. Personal note: See if I can ask my manager to send me to Botswana…? :P

Read about Missions and Missionaries
Hudson Taylor, Cameron Townsend, etc.
We can learn from the wisdom that God gave them…
Read mission agencies’ newsletters and prayer letters
Read missions journals and magazines and from the Internet.
Learn about where you want to serve
Learn more about he part of the world where you want to serve, if you know where that is.
Learn some of the words of the language.
Pray for that place or people group
Try to find missionaries serving there
Personal note: Catch up with Cuong…
Be a missionary now. J
Ask what kind of activities do you see yourself doing as a missionary?
Develop skills and share your faith, especially if you can find the people group in Singapore.
Taking more leadership
i. Sometimes we need to rise up in leadership to

Support Raising
Friends raising, build relationships
i. Buy raisin buns….

Raising a support team

Consideration

- Attend a mission camp by one of the agencies

- Committed to setting realistic goals 1-2 years to be out.

- Keep a journal recording the steps you’re taking as you connect with mission agencies, pray, meet people in the discussion area, and reflect on your journey.


Panel

Mobization and Sending Trends in Singapore

!. Maturing Church: Self-governing, sel propagating, self-finacning…

2.


The Challenge of being sent out and supported by your Church.

The Primacy of the Church
“And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
i. The Church will smash against the gates of Hades! (Yeah!!!)

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirt comes up on you and you will be my witnesses…”
i. The Lord Jesus was speaking tto the beginning of the church when He said that!

The Purpose of the Church
The Church is SO IMPORTANT to the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Whole Church to the Whole World!
The Church exists for a Mission – the Mission of God to win the world back to Himself. John 3:16!
i. That is why He instituted the Church.

ii. The Church is to reach out to the world around it.

The Partnership of the Church
The Church is a sending agency, true, but it also works with the missions agencies.
i. The missions agencies already have the manpower and support and many years of unique experiences too.

The People of the church
The Church – from cradle to coffin.
The Church is the only institution that will last for eternity.
Am I witnessing to my neighbours? My local Singaporeans?
The Prayer support of the Church
It is crucial for us at home to support our missionaries in prayer.
The Church sends
The Financial support of the Church

Q&A:

Tentmakers: How to support them?

How can we help support missionaries who have returned for furlough (‘cos want to understand better the issues they may face upon return…)?

- Reaffirm the missionaries

- Missionaries are supposed to be “super-heroes”… :P but thank God that’s where the missions agencies can help…

- GET THE CHURCHES TO PLAY THEIR PART TOO.

How can we use media more effectively to help mobilize ppl / support overseas missionaries?

How to mobilize tertiary students for missions in future?

- We’re losing our cutting edge here…The campus ministries… Hmm! How?

- Share the passion… Yeah!!! :)

How to inculculate children…?!!!

- Can get the Family ministry to bring their children along on missions trip! :D

- Can invite overseas speakers to come and share with the children…

- Hope Joburg? :D

- Children can be really more passionate about going overseas…

- Get them to go on missions regularly... impart to them!

- The way we relate to our domestic hlpers, to ppl different from us… we model for our children to follow.

- *We need to help our children see that God has brought the whole world to our doorsteps in Singapore*

- Pray for the children….

- Missions Sunday for HopeKids service?

- Invite the missionaries to come to children’s service to tell the children stories… bring movies, pictures, souvenirs, books, etc…



Mobilization and Sending Trends in Singapore

1. Mega and large churches / denomoinations:direct sending structures

2. Misisona gencies

3. Missionarns partnerships: Key factors:

a. Character


Questions I need to ask myself… the challenge of leaving the status quo.

Are you at life’s crossroads where values and perspectives are often challenged?
What is my life built on?
Ask God to show me how can I move in tune with the Holy Spirit
How can I refocus my life from chasing success to developing significance?
We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation… so how shall we live out our divine calling?
Significance: What do you want your life to be remembered for?


“Only he who believes is obedient; only he who obedients believes.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The call to salvation is the call to discipleship (Lk 14:26-27; Jhn 10:27-28; Gal 2:20)

A commandment to daily followership

A commandment to make disciples for Jesus

A commandment to be in mission with God


Challenges for preparing for fulltime missionary service

WHY prepare?

Failure to prepare can have disastrous results

- On yourself

- On your family

- On the ministry

- On those you want to reach

Missions is not easy… Missions is WAR!

Missions is a marathon, not a sprint.

- Personal note: Train bit by bit… build up!


HOW TO prepare?

- Aspects

o Yourself

§ Character…

§ Personality

o Teamwork

o Community

§ Learn to minister grace to one another

o Culture

§ Learn the culture of the country you want to go to

§ Learn the language

o The Gospel

§ Learn the cultural points of the gospel

§ Learn to contextualize the gospel

§ The gospel is more than a tract – learn to apply the gospel to my own life

o God’s Word

§ Learn to share, teach and preach the Word

Bible School and pre-field cross-cultural training

- Don’t be in a hurry! God is never in a hurry.

o Even the Father took 30 years to prepare Jesus for just 3 years of full-time ministry.

- It takes TIME. A 2 hours seminar alone is insufficient.


The parable of the monkey helping the fish out of water… the moral is: you better know what you’re doing before you try to help…


Missions is about the gospel transforming their culture, so that the culture’ll make it easier for people to come to know Christ.


If the SAF does not send their soldiers to overseas after just one week of BMT… likewise, we shouldn’t just send our missionaries anyhow without proper training.


There’s nothing wrong with living in a high-class house in a Third-World country if you’re employing a lot of locals to work on your house…

What matters is the fruit that is produced. Jesus said, “Wisdom is proved right by her actions.”


We need to understand the cultural context… to live in a house that is commensurate with the cultural expectations of the locals.


WE MUST HAVE GOD’S WORD PLANTED DEEPLY WITHIN OUR HEARTS… there are missionaries who got burnt-out… and those who even converted to other religions. L


* Ignorance is a very dangerous thing. *


What is my role/niche in missions?

Church planter, evangelist, teacher, discipler, shepherd, counselor, strategist, consultant, coach, trainer, tentmaker, pilot, etc.

- We don’t need to go overseas to reach out to different cultures… we can simply reach out to our neighbours… Missions is about crossing cultures.

- Lord, help me get to know my Indian neighbours today… In Jesus’ name amen! J

Serving in health care, development, relief, orphanage, education, IT, publication, media and communications, etc.


Where? Who? With Whom?

- Which country and city?

- Which people group?

- Which agency to go with?


The question is not about numbers….

How am I influencing them for Christ? How am I influencing my colleagues for Christ?

Presence AND strategy… It’s important to have a STRATEGY…


The fruit of our ministry… AND also the fruit of our lips… giving praise to God. Salt and light : Presence and proclaimation