After several weeks of pausing in putting up blog posts—mostly because of being sidelined from the vertigo attack—I’m back at it.

This week, I’m in Caracas, Venezuela for a CRM conference for over 120 pastors and other leaders from throughout the nation. This event marks several important milestones. It celebrates the transition of CRM Venezuela to national leadership. Leonel Portillo (pictured below right) has assumed this responsibility. The conference also moves our contribution to the Church in the Latin world to a new level.

The main presenters for this conference were from CRM’s CoNext partners in Australia, Ian and Verlie Hamilton. Particularly gratifying was the fact that all of this event and subsequent ministry was happening with little to no influence from Americans. Increasingly CRM in this part of the world is morphing into an apostolic movement of and for Venezuelans and others in the region.

I came across this stark, provocative reference in the latest issue of First Things.

Paul Johnson, author of Art: A New History had this to say in The New Criterion:

“Nor do I believe that art can flourish for long without a spiritual element.

I grieve over what happened to painting in the twentieth century, vitiated by a kind of barbarism not unlike the actions of government which cost the lives of scores of millions. When I visit galleries today, I long for the fifteenth century with its tender Madonnas and the outstretched arms of the infant Jesus on their knees, and even the paintings of the martyrs in woeful suffering have a purpose missing from the pointless images of violence now cast up, or the descent into depths deeper than any Hell of Hieronymus Bosch.

I recall attending the opening of Tate Modern. I found a room there empty except for a large video screen and three children, a girl of about ten and her younger brother and sister. They were sampling modern art—a video of a man masturbating. That this kind of episode was no accident I deduce from the latest obiter dicta of Charles Saatchi, said to exercise enormous power over our art: ‘I know I sound like some ghastly creep, but there is something enchanting about seeing children sitting around a Chapman brothers piece showing penises coming out of girls’ eyes, and drawing it neatly to take back to their teacher.”

While all modern art is certainly not of this ilk, these observations are all too accurate of a culture in the West that has increasingly lost its way and a milieu into which the Christian movement struggles to speak with living, relevant power.

• Christians spend more on the annual audits of their churches and agencies ($810 million) than on all their workers in the non-Christian world.
• Despite Christ’s command to evangelize, 67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present day have never even heard his name.
• 14 million converted Hindus, buddhists, and muslims have opted to remain within those religions in order to witness for Christ as active believers in Jesus as Lord.
• Some 250 of the 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead the Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics.
• Trusted church treasurers are embezzling each year $21 billion out of church funds, but only 5% ever get found out. Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the entire cost of all foreign mission worldwide.
• The total cost of Christian outreach averages $330,000 for each and every newly baptized person.
• Of a total “Christian” population of slightly over 2 billion, approximately 648 million are active in Christ’s world mission; 1,352 million Christians ignore this mission.
• Over 20 centuries Christians have announced 1,500 global plans to evangelize the world; most failed. 250 plans focused on AD 2000 fell massively short of stated goals.
• Each years, 180 million bibles and New Testaments are wasted, lost, destroyed, or disintegrated due to incompetence, hostility, bad planning, or inadequate manufacture.
• 70 million Christians have been martyred since the time of Christ. The five most dangerous vocations are: bishops, evangelists, catechists, colporteurs, and foreign missionaries.
• Over 90% of all Christian evangelism is aimed at other Christians and does not reach non-Christians.

Statistics gleaned from the World Evangelization Research Center, (World Christian Trends AD 30 - AD 2200. Interpreting the annual Christian megacensus. David Barrett and Todd Johnson. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2001. 934p).

This was the scene Monday morning at the dedication of CRM-Singapore’s new office space.

Friends, business people, pastors, and leaders of the Christian community in Singapore gathered to worship and thank God for the work this team has carried on the past few years and the addition of Singaporeans as full-time partners in the ministry.

It was an impressive time characterized by a deep sense of God’s presence. Most notable was the address by Pastor Lawrence Chua (below left) and then the prayer of dedication by former Anglican Archbishop, Moses Tay (below middle).

I just returned from a three day retreat in Indonesia with the CRM Singapore staff. It was a milestone because included were three Singaporeans who have made the decision to join CRM Singapore. Pictured here is one of our times of prayer for these new missionaries.

Singapore has enormous potential to contribute to the worldwide Christian movement. It’s strategic location, wealth, number and health of existing churches, all add up for it to be a place and a people to whom much has been given and much can be expected.

However, whether it will “step up” to assume such a role hangs in the balance. Most honest observers see:

1. An inordinate reluctance on the part of Singaporean Christians to leave comfort, financial security, family and jobs to risk it all in a missional vocation. Such an overly responsible commitment to the status-quo is in the fabric of the culture and reinforced by the government.
2. Lots of short-term mission experiences which send people every which direction but result in little long-term commitment, a phenomena characteristic of other rich nations which can afford to dabble.
3. Over half of the present career missionary force of approximately 500 are completely sent, supported, and controlled by existing local churches rather than apostolic, missionary sending entities. Such a short-sighted, inadequate ecclesiology invariably stunts the missionary thrust.

Our prayer is that the three Singaporeans who have joined CRM will be the “tip of the iceberg” of those who will eventually represent Christ throughout Asia and the rest of the world.

Am in Singapore and headed to Indonesia today.

Colin Crawley (CRM-Enterprise) and Bobby Booze (CRM-Hungary) are with me. We’ll be working on a three day training event to help in orientation for a group of Singaporeans who are new missionaries with CRM.

“Church Growth” has gotten a bad rap!

Several years ago I was at a large conference in Denver sponsored by Leadership Network. In front of hundreds of leaders from around the nation, a leading evangelical figure lashed out at “church growth” and characterized it as the fountainhead of all that was wrong with the present-day Church in North America.

I approached him personally afterwards and asked him where in the writings of Donald McGavran—the “father” of the Church Growth Movement—would I find any of the the things he so aggressively castigated. And which aspect of the field of missiology, of which “church growth” theory has played an integral part, would he find anything close to what he was pummeling. He responded with a blank stare.

“Church growth” have become in recent years a grab-all punching bag for anyone who wants to take shots at the church that is, particularly the mega, number-crunching, market oriented, shallow, seeker-sensitive, institutional forms of Christianity that the Protestant movement in the Western world has deemed to be paradigms of “success.”

In reality, Church Growth—as defined and taught by Donald A. McGavran—is far from what has been popularized in North America. This school of study and practice has been one of the most important and influential missiological forces in the latter half of the 20th century, particularly in the developing world. Today, unbeknownst to most, such missiology is a major underpinning of those movements around the globe that are cutting new ground for the Christian movement in unreached people groups and among the major blocks that remain resistant to the good news of Jesus, i.e., other major world religions, the secular, and the animistic. In many ways, the emerging church in the West applies and lives out the missiological insights articulated by McGavran several generations earlier.

In his seminal works, The Bridges of God and later Understanding Church, McGavran provided groundbreaking insights and a framework to understand the redemptive purposes of God. Such understanding has stood the test of time and culture. Granted, there are refinements that that years have brought, such as a clearer differentiation between church and kingdom, but on the whole, the seminal theory that McGavran advanced—based on his 30 years of field work in India—continues to ring true today.

Eddie Gibbs, who hold the McGavran chair of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, put it this way:

“Unfortunately, as the Church Growth movement became popular in North America, it focused on technique, and we lost sight of the profound insights of Donald McGavran.

His early writing was pushing people out of their secure mission stations to build the bridges of God into the society around them and to sensitively birth faith communities within their cultural context …

My hope is that the Church Growth movement is still to come into its own. The Americanization of it corrupted it, but McGavran is still right! He was a child of his age, and he got some things wrong. He defined mission too narrowly, and he too closely identified church and kingdom. But he grasped this idea that you’ve got to be a movement, to be on the move. And he understood the need to think in terms of sociological maps, not just geographical ones.”

One of the exhilarating privileges I have several times yearly is to meet and interact with people joining CRM staff in our New Staff Orientation.

This week, it has been with the group above. They are headed to incredible ministry venues such as Scotland, Cambodia, Russia, and Italy. One person is on their way to life among Muslims in South Asia. One couple has just come from New Zealand. Another person is of Chinese descent and another spent many of her growing up years in Indonesia.

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” —Isaiah 52:7

The future of Russia lies in the emerging generation.

The Harbor is making a small but incredibly effective dent in the pressing needs of that generation. Located in St. Petersburg, it is a transitional living program for young semi-adult Russian orphans, helping them make the journey from hopelessness to productive members of society.

Directed by CRM staff Melinda and Mark Cathy and Alex Krutov, The Harbor meets both the physical and spiritual needs of children, providing job skills and placement, introducing orphans to a living, relevant relationship with Jesus, and modeling a new way to care for street children and those in the new Russia who have been cast aside.

Based on the St. Petersburg Governor’s report, 40,000 street children live in the city and the surrounding area, more than in the aftermath of WWII. The St. Petersburg region has approximately 40 orphanages in the city and another 60-70 in the suburbs. Each orphanage accommodates on average 100 children. At 17-18 years of age, Russian orphans are turned out into society and must find their own way to make it in life…and most don’t. Ninety percent of those turned out by the system end up in crime, prison, and prostitution. Within the first five years many commit suicide.

All of the participants are enrolled in either high school, Technical College or University. The staff of The Harbor work with them daily; teaching basic life skills such as cooking, shopping, and how to study. They work with participants on self-discipline, how to work wholeheartedly, to be trustworthy, and how to care for themselves. In addition, residents participate in regular Bible studies, one-on-one and group counseling, and vocational training of their choice. Some may specialize in sewing; others may choose to specialize in computer classes, English classes, or carpentry. Vocational classes are taught by Russian lay men and women.

This ministry is intense. It is deep and it is thorough. In the section of The Harbor website that lists and describes graduates, results can be readily observed. The unvarnished truth is also there. Every participant has not been a “success story.” Nevertheless, the results and the recidivism rate are impressive.

I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

In the relationships I encounter, it occurs most often with two groups of people to a degree far too often to be mere coincidence:

1. First are those who have stepped up and begun to use their resources in a strategic and sacrificial way. This is much more than the obligatory “tithing.” I’m talking about folks who really get it and begin to give and invest in the things of the Kingdom until it hurts.

Yesterday, I got a call from one such person. Last year, they gave almost ALL of their disposable income away. He was reeling. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong …agony in his family, vocational set-backs, betrayal from close associates, and physical things happening that could resemble a contemporary Job. Why? Could it be because of his significant financial and material involvement in the things of God, he now wears a big read bull’s eye on his life?

OR:

2. Secondly are those who have made the decision to make the jump and serve Jesus in some form of vocational ministry. Invariably, the bottom falls out in one way or another, discouraging them to pursue such a calling and making them question whether they have indeed heard from God about the future.

These folks catch it a variety of ways. Sometimes, simultaneous with their decision, they get an incredibly lucrative job offer which rocks them. Just think what that extra income would mean ...what they could do for their kids ...the things they could have they previously could never afford …the security, comfort and prosperity. Or, they get clobbered from extended family who consider such a vocational decision sheer madness. How could they possibly throw away all that education? How could they walk away from careers and pay checks and then “beg” from others to pay the bills?

And in both scenarios, there are inexplicable and invariable physical maladies that hit out of nowhere. It is as if they have hung out a shingle that reads “Hit Me!”

Both scenarios force intense reflection and introspection. “Did we really hear from God?” “Have we counted the cost?” “Is this really what we should be doing with our lives?”

One simple, but profound piece of advice I heard early in my days in ministry has been a lifeline during such times of doubt and despair, when all hell breaks loose and you wonder where God went: “Do not doubt in the dark what God has already shown you in the light.” It’s true. It works.

At the same time, such circumstances illuminate the reality of living and ministering in a profoundly supernatural world, a truth that is too often dismissed and ignored because of our western bias against what anthropologist Paul Heibert so accurately describes as the “excluded middle,” that realm where the demonic and angelic operate. When in such circumstances, our survival may depend upon knowing how to effectively engage in warfare in the supernatural realm. As Martin Luther wrote in the crucible of the Reformation:

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

I met John Hayes over 20 years ago.

I was leading a discipleship group for single men and he joined it. He had just arrived in Orange County from Watts and was moving onto Minnie Street, one of the poorest, low income, high crime neighborhoods in a county that in the popular imagination of the rest of the country, symbolized the epitome of the American dream. Minnie Street was a teeming mixture of first generation immigrants from Latin America and Southeast Asia, (mostly Cambodian).

For over a decade, John lived there and thrived, building a team that has evolved into InnerCHANGE, an “order among the poor” with over 75 people people living and serving in places as diverse as Cambodia, Romania, Venezuela, the UK, and in American inner-cities such as LA, San Francisco and Minneapolis.

John met Deanna in the late 80s when she volunteered on Minnie Street. When John and Deanna were married in 1991, I had the privilege of officially tying the knot. They, and their two girls, are close to our family and we are honored to consider them in that rare category of life-long friends.

As such, John has had a profound influence on my life. In word and through example, he has moved me an enormous distance in my understanding of God’s heart for the poor and how to effectively live out the good news of Jesus among the most marginalized. Not that I have arrived in this respect or will ever live incarnationally among the poor as those serving with InnerCHANGE do, but my paradigms, values, and understanding of biblical holism has shifted dramatically because of the presence of John and Deanna in my life. And I would like to believe that in some respects, how I live has been permanently and deeply altered as well.

John was a major catalyst in my doctoral work which combined urban theology with a theology of the poor, all practically applied through a rudimentary blueprint for an order, such as InnerCHANGE, to grow and thrive within a larger apostolic movement such as CRM.

John’s new book, sub-merge, is must reading. It is a incredibly well written “manifesto” which puts feet to the biblical injunction to “act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

“Sub-Merge: Living Deep in a Shallow World: Service, Justice and Contemplation Among the World’s Poor” (John Hayes)

John Hayes leads InnerCHANGE—the branch of CRM where men and women serve quietly and humbly as an order among the poor. John has authored an important new volume that hits the bookstores January 5th.

sub-merge is unique. It is not outlines a practical theology for ministry among the marginalized, but it is a prophetic manifesto for being, in word and deed, the presence of Jesus among those the world has passed by. A must read for all who name the name of Christ and who are committed to following and serving him no matter where it may lead.

Available now from Amazon.com
“Sub-Merge: Living Deep in a Shallow World: Service, Justice and Contemplation Among the World’s Poor” (John Hayes)

Our Father All-Merciful!
Don’t abandon your own long-suffering Russia
In her present daze,
In her woundedness,
Impoverishment,
And confusion of spirit.
Lord Omnipotent!
Don’t let, don’t let her be cut short,
To no longer be.
So many forthright hearts
And so many talents
You have lodged among Russians.
Do not let them perish or sink into darkness
Without having served in your name.
Ot of the depths of Calamity
Save your disordered people.

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I was scheduled to be in Lebanon this week and then on to Egypt. The travel has been postponed.

With all the turmoil and unrest in the region as a result of the assassination of Pierre Gemayel, the purpose of going was defeated. The ability to travel, move around the city, meet with people, etc., is next to impossible. Our folks living and serving in the region wrote:

“After several contacts yesterday and today with many people who are very well connected with the different factions in the country at the highest levels, we were informed that the upcoming week is very critical and it is most likely that Beirut airport would be closed due to the planned demonstrations and actions. Once things start it is not clear when and how it will end. The situation is very critical and outcomes could go any direction.”

Sayyid Qutb is considered the father off modern Islamic radicalism. An Egyptian writer and poet, he was executed by Gamal Nasser in 1966. Yet what he wrote still reverberates throughout the Islamic world and profoundly affects Muslim perceptions of Western culture. About the U.S. (where he studied as an exchange student), he wrote in a famous polemic, The America I have Seen:

“This great America: What is it worth in the scale of human values? And what does it add to the moral account of humanity? And, by the journey’s end, what will its contribution be? I fear that a balance may not exist between American’s material greatness and the quality of its people. And I fear that the wheel of life will have turned and the book of life will have closed and America will have added nothing, or next to nothing, to the account of morals that distinguishes man from object, and indeed, mankind from animals.”

Compare that perspective and the striking similarities with these passages from Pope Benedict XVI in his 1990 book, In the Beginning:

“The good and the moral no longer count, it seems, but only what one can do. The measure of a human being is what he can do, and not what he is, not what is good or bad. What he can do, he may do . . . And that means that he is destroying himeslf and the world . . . [The question] ‘What can we do?’ will be false and pernicious while we refrain from asking ‘who are we?’ The question of being and the question of our hopes are inseparable.”

Both works are biting critiques of the bankruptcy of Western culture. It is not unlike the extensive treatment that Protestant theologian, Os Guinness, produced 30 years ago entitled, The Dust of Death, which articulately dissected the same spiritual poverty. Or consider the works of Alexander Solzenitzen which do the same.

While intellectually understanding such critiques, the emotional impact was driven home to me on my first visit to Beirut several years ago. Particularly jarring was the visual displays of wealth, materialism, sex and sensuality that were everywhere in the so called “Christian” enclaves. I saw, and actually felt, for the first time what devout Muslims must see and feel when confronted with the decadence of Western culture. It is a decadence that I suspect I have become numb to because it is the social and moral ocean in which I swim.

Perhaps it takes a Benedict, a Guinness, or a Solzenitzen to jar us to reality. Or a Sayyid who helps give us insight into the passions that motivate devout young Arabs to strap explosives around their waists and blow up soldiers from Western nations.

(The comparison between Sayyid and Benedict are based on an article by John L. Allen Jr. in the 11/16/06 Op Ed section of the Los Angeles Times).

CRM has several families living and serving in Lebanon. This is the latest from the leader of the team, a Lebanese national:

Once again Lebanon and the Lebanese have fallen victim to the vicious hand of evil!

You no doubt have heard of the assassination of Pierre Amine Gemayel. His murder may easily trigger civil unrest particularly at this very sensitive period in the history of Lebanon.

Directly after his murder, many Lebanese flooded the streets blocking roads, burning tires and photos of political opponents… In several parts of Beirut, the Internal Security had to intervene to stop fights between people affiliated with opposing factions. The funeral is scheduled for tomorrow and hundreds of thousands are going to take the streets.

This comes at a time when we embarking on new ministry opportunities and many doors are opening in normally closed communities. While our country and people have grown used to times of crisis and difficulty, our hearts are burdened with sorrow. Nevertheless, we are not afraid knowing that our God is in control.

Please pray for Lebanon and the Lebanese; for wisdom at all levels and the avoidance of reactions that lead to further strife in the country. May God have mercy on our people and country.

“Dangling money in front of desparately poor people is very hazardous. it is generally safer and more effective to send loving workers than cash.”—Missiologist Ralph Winter, Mission Frontiers Magazine, Sept/Oct 2005, pg. 12.

Being the presence in word and deed of Jesus is the most powerful means of transforming lives and society in any cultural setting. While the generous and wise use of information, resources, technology and money cannot be ignored and have their proper place, nothing speaks as potently as the good news of Jesus lived out as a personal, on-the-ground presence among those in need.

Of course the prime example of this is how God himself deals with humanity when he ‘”became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” (John 1:14)

Unfortunately for those of us in North America, such a reality grates against some of our deeply imbedded biases. We trust technological solutions and too often believe throwing gobs of money at a problem—apart from presence—can solve almost anything. And the time, effort and agony required of incarnation is a sacrifice most of us are unwilling to make.

American Christianity is sadly enamored with a cross-cultural missions ethos dominated by short-term experiences, shallow spirituality and naive missiology, all awash in enormous amounts of cash, the sum of which is a fleeting panacea for the desperation of the human condition

I just returned from Asia. Singapore to be exact.

Although I don’t feel like a novice in this part of the world, every cross-cultural experience generates fresh insight and understanding and this trip was no different. As I look at the enormous complexities facing the Christian movement in Asia, several observations and questions emerged such as:

The Church in Asia continues to step up in assuming its rightful place and contribution to the worldwide Christian movement.

One cannot help but be impressed by the zeal and passion that characterizes Asian Christianity.

In settings such as Singapore (where this trip was concentrated), materialism has steadily acquired a vice grip on the culture and exercises a stifling effect on the missional vision of the Church.

How can new generations of leadership emerge in contexts where status, shame and saving face are such predominant values?

Authoritarian leaders who abuse their followers are unfortunately the norm, not the exception in this part of the world. How can such a dysfunctional cultural paradigm be replaced by biblical, servant leadership?

Related to the fixation on status is the compulsive drive for formal education. Too many people are sidelined from an effective contribution to kingdom involvement because of perceived inadequacies due to a lack of formal and advanced education. Sad.

There is significant emotional wounding, particularly in the lives of children. The obsession to achieve exerts enormous pressure.

I realize these are gross generalizations and not all Asian cultures are the same. Nevertheless, while the Church throughout Asia continues to grow in influence and stature on the global scene, zeal cannot paper over some of these deeply rooted issues. Unless honestly faced by Asian leaders, such issues will limit the contribution their nations can make to the Christian movement and a transformational influence on their own societies.

“The most shocking, tragic and incredible delusion built right into contemporary Evangelicalism in many areas is the idea that we are here on earth simply to get more people fixed up for eternity.

That aspiration is basic, of course. But it’s preliminary to a life lived 24/7 in an all-out battle against those things that dishonor God: evil things, disease germs, corruption, dishonesty in industry and government. I John 3:8 says, ‘The Son of God came for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the Devil.’ And, as the Father sent Him, so He sends us!

In fact, glorifying God by fighting evil is the best way to win people to Christ. Jesus Himself, fought evil, dishonesty and greed—and disease. He did this to reveal to us the character of our heavenly Father.

It is no merely a case of overcoming evil with good, as when we run up against ‘flesh and blood.” We must also deliberately seek out and destroy evil in order to defend and confirm the character of our Father in Heaven.”

In Mission Frontiers, November, 2006.

Alan Hirsch has just come out with a new book that I highly recommend, “The Forgotten Way: Reactivating the Missional Church..

In it, he makes a compelling case for the inherent spiritual DNA—what he calls “Apostolic Genius”—that exists in every individual who follows Jesus and in every community of such individuals.

It’s important reading for anyone serious about the future of the Christian movement and what is necessary for us to participate with the Spirit of God in the type of spiritual dynamics that can, and should, affect the course of history.

“The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church” (Alan Hirsch)

“It is astonishing that most Protestant missionaries … have been blind to the significance of the very structure within which they have worked. In this blindness, they have merely planted churches and have not effectively concerned themselves to make sure that the kind of mission structure within which they operate also be set up on the field.” – Missiologist Ralph Winter in “The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission”

I just returned from London where I met with those who lead CRM’s ministry in eight nations where nationals are the leaders and nationals are in one stage or another in being sent as missionaries.

Rather than be a multi-national corporation, we have deliberately determined that CRM will evolve as an international partnership of apostolic entities which are the mission structures Winter describes.

We believe the the results will be exponentially powerful in the multiplication of new kinds of leaders for new kinds of churches all over the globe.

Pictured above are leaders from Venezuela, Hungary, U.K., Africa, the Middle East, Korea, the U.S. and Australia.

“I’m going out
And it doesn’t matter whether it’s up or down.
Or who’s holding your hand, an angel or otherwise …
The cold has worn me out.”

“People have a lack of hope.
All their efforts are in vain.
They have a feeling of eternal emptiness.”

Thes are words from 21 year-old Russian musician Nikolai Zavada and originally posted on www.mysuicide.ru (now shut down).

I came across Zavada in a stark front-page series in the LA Times on Russia: A Dying Population: The nation is succumbing to a low birthrate, disease and despair. These articles document a country that continues its slide into mass misery and hopelessness. It states:

“Russia is rapidly losing population. Its people are succumbing to one of the world’s fastest-growing AIDS epidemics, resurgent tuberculosis, rampant cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, suicide and the lethal effects of unchecked industrial pollution.”

I believe Russia is one of the most difficult mission environments on the planet. In a conflicted culture where East and West converge but which never experienced the Renaissance nor the Reformation, oppression and suffering are pillars of the national psyche. It is an overwhelmingly sad place. And it is an exceptionally difficult place for the good news of Jesus to take root and thrive.

In the early 90s, mission to Russia was the latest fad as countless short-termers and religious cowboys from the West poured in to take advantage (more…)

I just returned from several weeks in Europe: the UK, Ukraine, Romania and Moldova.

Whenever I travel, I never want to go alone. That’s a waste. Too much can happen relationally during such intense and sometimes turbulent times on the road.

In this cool photo (taken at Spohad, a portrait studio that is a CRM Enterprise business in Ukraine) is the troupe that participated in this portion of the latest trip:

L to R: Ryan (my admin assistant), Deedee (CRM’s VP for Finance), Tim (business guy and chair of the CRM-US Board), Jeri (CRM Enterprise staff living in Romania), Colin (Director of CRM Enterprise), Don (business guy and long-time personal friend/supporter) and me.

Argentine and Shawni are missionaries in Moldova.

He’s Moldovan and she’s from Ukraine. They met in university in Romania and returned to his native Moldova after graduation. She is a medical doctor but prohibited from practicing since they moved. Together, they are part of a team that gives leadership to a nascent church planting movement in this region of the country. Three new churches have emerged from the efforts of this team.

They are quality leaders. Quiet, deep, tenacious, servants committed to multiplying a new generation of leaders and churches in this former Soviet republic and beyond.

Wherever I come across fruitful movements such as this, inevitably at their core are people like Argentine and Shawni. They don’t write books. They don’t spout theory. They don’t blog. They simply do it.

Last week I was in rural Moldova (former Soviet Republic) and had the joy of observing a burgeoning church planting movement.

Pictured here are the leaders of three new churches that have begun to multiply. I had the privilege of spending an evening discussing issues of leadership with this group. This has all happened because of a team of Romanian missionaries sent to live and minister in the region three years ago. (The leader of this apostolic band, Dan, is in the center with the red jacket and translating for me at left). These missionaries come from a similar church planting movement in Northwestern Romania called Ecclesia which CRM has been involved with for many years.

As in most such movements, the core issue is not structure, education, or money. It’s all about the leaders—their character, spirituality, and giftedness—and their willingness to live sacrificially for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom.