Project North Africa

This post is a response to this article: http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/1169?rss

Please click there and read that article by Younnoussa Djao before reading this post.

This article betrays itself as pragmatic and unbiblical ignoring God’s spiritual work of discipleship with just one sentence:

“one leader who got trained and went to implement this approach said, “We have planted about forty-two churches in three years; but with this approach, the Lord has helped us plant 150 churches in three months.”

Consider the following Biblical errors in this man’s methods. They are prominent Independent Baptist methods being run by missions organizations and individuals. Unwittingly I believe we have fallen for the scams that we’d never buy in other areas of life. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t believe that men of God who love God and are committed to the Great Commission are running scams knowingly (though it has definitely been done before) but what I am saying is that we as missionaries and pastors have adopted the methods of popular scams that in the end will be empty air and pretty prayer letters with no long-term results:

1. The Millionaire DVD Series Scam

A plethora of companies teach how you can learn to be rich during your spare time (usually through real estate or pyramid schemes) if you’ll only buy their $200 DVD series. Who’s actually getting rich? Them or the buyer? This scam is no illegal because it does work a small percentage of the time. But to hear their impressive numbers given by people in flowery shirts sitting in a resort in the Caribbean you’d think it is fail proof.

Notice Djao’s statement “one leader who got trained”. When did this leader get trained? It was a 3 or 4 day seminar about how to “implement this approach”. Djao uses the language of the scams: “revolutionary approach! Ground breaking method!”  But here’s the problem, that’s not how Jesus did it. Jesus didn’t train people to implement an approach or formula, he discipled them “TO BE LIKE HIM” (Matt 10).

We as missionaries and pastors must be aware that the real work is not done when we gather a group of pastor for a one or two week conference. Conferences have their place and they can be a real blessing to the national believers but the real work was done years before when Continue reading →

Uzbekistan’s Baptist Union is facing criminal charges for allegedly unlawfully teaching children religion, and for supposedly misusing their property as a summer camp, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. As a result, Baptist Union Chair Pavel Peichev faces huge fines, the confiscation of the property, imprisonment, or some combination of these penalties. Baptists have vehemently denied the allegations. The authorities have also instituted checks on the tax and other obligatory payments by the Baptist Union. The first sign of trouble for the Baptists were two articles published by a government-sponsored news agency. Independent human rights defender sources think that the agency is sponsored by the NSS secret police, and that the author may be an NSS officer. The authorities have refused to discuss the details of the case, although the main prosecutor claimed to Forum 18 that “we have…”

read the rest of the article here: www.forum18.org

Jesus told Peter, James, and John, “From now on you will fishers of men.” in Luke 5. I read that the other day and a few thoughts came to my mind:

1. What a huge shock that must have been to the religious elite. They called disciples of the most educated to be MORE seperated from men not surrounded by them like a fishermen is his fish. Remember Peter had just been in a boat full of fish. Now Jesus was saying he’d be soon surrounded by men, sinful men, sometimes much closer than he would want them.

2. Peter left everything. What a counter cultural move. Today if a man had just made a million (like Peter did when he pulled in that huge load of fish) we would tell him that he should do business as missions! God was blessing him in business! But Peter left the profit sitting in the boats and followed Jesus. How badly we need men to leave any desire for earthly gain and follow Jesus! Even missionaries (myself no exception) can be lovers of money. Let’s leave it and follow Jesus!

3. Jesus was about to embark on a huge job: Transforming ignorant fishermen into preachers, disciplers, administrators, and world class leaders. What a frustrating job that must have been day by day trying to break the solid molds engrained into their minds.

Right now I am training a few to be fishers of men and it is tedious. God give me patience and realize how much I need to still learn.